Bailey brings back bad old days for Leicestershire
Leicestershire slid to 78 all out and a heavy defeat against Lancashire as Tom Bailey’s maiden five-wicket haul revived memories of their desperate recent seasons
Alex Winter at Grace Road20-May-2015
ScorecardTom Bailey took his maiden five-wicket haul•Getty Images
Leicestershire replaced their coach, captain, chief executive and overseas player over the winter and the impact of those changes was seen in vaguely encouraging performances from their opening four matches. But here was an ugly reminder of the progress they still have to make as they completely capitulated on the fourth afternoon, bowled out for 78 in a repeat embarrassment of the horrors of 2014.Tom Bailey – only playing here because Peter Siddle has left to join up with the Australian Test squad – took his maiden five-wicket haul, and together with Kyle Jarvis ran through Leicestershire, sharing seven wickets for Lancashire’s third win of the season. Surely even the most optimistic in the visitors’ dressing room did not believe they would be back on the bus with a jug of Wainwright by 5pm.Cosgrove calm after “little setback”
Tom Bailey
“I’ve been playing seconds for four years so I’ve been chomping at the bit to get a chance. Last week I felt off form but I’ve done some work with Glen Chapple between games and it’s really helped me. When it’s not swinging I’ve been struggling so I’ve been working to get some pace behind the ball.
“We’ve got an exciting attack. We had Chappie, Hogg, Kabir Ali last year and we’ve lost all of them so to be still be seen as favourites for the title is a big thing and there’s a lot of pressure on us. But we’re a young bunch of lads and looking forward to it.”
Mark Cosgrove
“We’ve come so far this year and played some good cricket so to put in a performance like that is very disappointing. The top five didn’t do their job. The pitch was fine. You look back to day one, if we’d have caught our catches it could have been different.
“The dressing room is really good at the moment, it’s enthusiastic, we know we’re moving forward and this is just a little setback. If we show what we’re about at Essex next week this will be forgotten.”
Most observers also thought Leicestershire had more fight in them than this. The ball continued to swing but wickets were not taken with miracle deliveries: Neil Pinner hooked Jarvis down long leg’s throat; Clint McKay played the same stroke to be caught by wicketkeeper Alex Davies running out to square leg; captain Mark Cosgrove – to his second ball – attempted the same shot, thought against it but not in time and spooned a catch to Davies; Ned Eckersley simply missed a straight ball from Bailey.Leicestershire were asked to survive 59 overs to save the match and the pessimistic in the ground recalled last year’s match here against Hampshire where Leicestershire were fired out for 96 in 31.4 overs. Perhaps the team themselves could not get that afternoon out of their heads either. They were seven down after 14.2 overs having lost 7 for 9 in 47 balls. Tom Wells and Clint McKay at least managed to survive for seven overs to take the game into the final session and avoid Leicestershire’s lowest score against Lancashire at Grace Road of 47.There were happier experiences for Leicestershire to draw on from the opening four rounds of this season. They produced spirited responses to scoreboard pressure both at home to Glamorgan and in the wake of Kevin Pietersen’s 355 at The Oval. But it was the Leicestershire of last season that re-emerged here in a performance that will greatly frustrate the new management.The carnage was brewed in the sixth over. Jarvis jagged one back sharply to rip through Lewis Hill but past the inside edge and off stump. Hill then drove loosely just short of backward point before being struck on the pad, only for an inside edge to save him. Hill, flustered, edged Bailey low to Paul Horton at first slip in the next over.Three poor dismissals of Eckersley, Cosgrove and Pinner followed before Angus Robson was also caught in the cordon off Bailey, who claimed his five-for with an inswinger to take out Ben Raine’s off stump and a catch at second slip offered by Niall O’Brien – who spoke of Leicestershire’s solid chance of winning on the third evening.To force victory themselves, Leicestershire needed a run of morning wickets but with heavy cloud cover and an 11 over old ball they only managed a couple of lbws as Ashwell Prince and Alex Davies shared the highest partnership of the match: 107 at just under a run-a-ball.Davies impressively upped the scoring rate in a 50-ball half-century, his fourth in the Championship this season. He was busy, played the gaps well and ran hard between the wickets. Twice he skipped down the track to lift Charlie Shreck over his head. Prince, not as fluent as Davies, went to his own fifty in 85 balls with one of several wild edges, this through third man. Lancashire went to a rain-induced early lunch with 64 runs in 62 balls but even though they took 10 overs of the afternoon before declaring, they still found more than enough time to secure victory.