Kent’s old boys are warming to Foxes revolution
BAD light and heavy rain wiped out the final seven sessions to ensure that Kent’s County Championship clash with Leicestershire ended in a damp-squib of a draw.
The sides banked five points apiece from the five sessions of combative cricket, but Mother Nature threw a tantrum thereafter with poor light, cold, constant drizzle and wind gusts that forced the ground authorities to switch off and retract the floodlights on health and safety grounds.
Leicestershire were rescued from first-day collywobbles at 19-3 by a stand of 218 between Mark Cosgrove (119) and Mark Pettini (97). Pettini fell to the second ball of Joe Denly’s occasional leg-spin, while Cosgrove, having posted a third hundred in successive Championship starts against Kent, ran himself out following nifty glovework by Sam Billings.
Leicestershire slid to 341 all out with Darren Stevens bagging 4-74 against his old club. Matt Coles offered sound support with an aggressive 3-94 despite nursing a badly blistered left big toe.
Kent’s reply started under lights on Bank Holiday Monday, when Clint McKay sent Tom Latham packing for nine. Denly and Daniel Bell-Drummond dug in, adding 88 for the second wicket, before Ben Raine snared Denly lbw for 32.
Bell-Drummond, mentioned in England dispatches after his consistent start to the campaign, passed 50 for the eighth time in all formats and was unbeaten on 65 when the players went in for an early tea with Kent 224 in arrears. As it transpired, they never returned and the game was abandoned just after lunch, two days later.
For three of Leicestershire’s number, their visit to Canterbury had felt almost like a homecoming, albeit a soggy one.
Seamer Charlie Shreck left Kent at the end of 2013 after a twoseason stint, while Neil Dexter played four seasons before moving to Essex and then Middlesex. Their team-mate, Ireland wicketkeeper/batsman Niall O’Brien, spent the first three seasons of his career at The Spitfire Ground before his switch to Northamptonshire in 2007.
Both Dexter and O’Brien are enjoying being part of a new-look Leicestershire squad that also recruited experienced duo Mark Pettini and Paul Horton during the close season. Dexter said: “It’s no secret that I did talk with Kent after deciding to leave Middlesex last year because I had good memories of being here in my early days.
“It didn’t really go much further than an initial chat though and never really got to top-level talks. Then Leicestershire approached me and, within 10 minutes of meeting Andrew McDonald (elite performance director) and Wasim Khan (chief executive), I knew I wanted to join them.
“The vision of what they wanted to do as a club, their three-year plan, excited me.”
O’Brien also praised Khan and McDonald’s Foxes revolution, saying: “The catalyst for change at Leicester came with their arrival. They changed the mindset and gave us all inspiring goals.
“It’s early days but we are starting to change perceptions and, more importantly, put points on the board.
“In Dexter, Pettini and Horton we’ve brought in three experienced guys who are still hungry for success and the likes of Raine, Aadil Ali and Tom Wells are all starting to see the fruits of their labours.So to single out the newcomers wouldn’t be right, we are working hard as a group and moving forward together.”