Captain marvel leads Lancashire CCC to victory

Fine bowling from young leg-spinner Matt Parkinson, who picked up 4-31 from his 10 overs, following early breakthroughs by seamers Joe Mennie and Graham Onions, restricted the Foxes to 172 all out; desperately below par on a good pitch at Oakham School.

Lancashire captain Liam Livingstone then smashed seven sixes in racing to 90 off just 56 balls, with Haseem Hameed hitting 55 not out in an unbroken partnership of 133 as the visitors cruised to victory in just 25.5 overs.

Bowling first after winning the toss proved a wise decision by Livingstone on a cloudy morning.

There was something in the pitch for the seamers, as Mennie produced an almost unplayable delivery to Cameron Delport which pitched on leg stump and moved away to hit off.

Paul Horton did not last much longer, Onions finding the outside edge and Livingstone taking the catch at second slip.

Ned Eckersley and Mark Cosgrove began to rebuild the innings, but their third wicket partnership had reached only 42 when Eckersley (15) attempted to reverse sweep Stephen Parry and top-edged to Alex Davies.

Colin Ackermann (24) struggled from the start against the leg-spin of Parkinson and was quickly bowled by a googly he completely failed to pick.

It was hard to understand what was going through Neil Dexter’s mind when, before getting off the mark, the experienced all-rounder tried to loft Parkinson over mid-off and failed to clear Josh Bohannon.

Cosgrove was Leicestershire’s only real hope of posting a competitive score but the Australian had made 52 when he played and missed at Parkinson, dragged his rear foot and Dane Vilas completed a smart stumping.

Tom Wells lofted Parkinson high to Parry at long-on, Javid steered Parry tamely to Livingstone at wide extra cover and Dieter Klein was LBW to Onions as the Foxes failed to bat out their 50 overs.

Davies and Hameed then gave Lancashire a solid start to their reply.

Although Davies (23) top-edged a pull at Klein to be caught behind, Livingstone ensured the chase would end very quickly as Lancashire reached 175-1.