Foxes find they have perfect match
LEICESTERSHIRE are reaping the benefits of a more experienced line-up this year and no one more so than Angus Robson, who believes his opening partnership with Paul Horton is catching fire.
Victory over Gloucestershire at the Cheltenham Festival marked the Foxes’ third County Championship victory this season – this time 12 months ago they’d just won their first red-ball game in nearly three years.
Horton, signed after Lancashire released him last year, has been one of the key contributors and is ticking along nicely at an average of more than 40 after compiling two centuries in the competition.
And Robson is convinced the 33-year-old’s steady hand on the tiller opposite him at the crease is exactly what was needed – before admitting he now must deliver the goods himself.
“It’s been great this year to have someone at the other end who has been around a bit and had a lot of success, his record is superb,” said the 24-year-old, brother of Middlesex opener Sam.
“I speak to him all the time about batting and having someone to help you and talk you through things has been magnificent.
“I think we have formed a bond at the top of the order and we are reaping the rewards.
“I have got consistent scores but it’s frustrating not to turn them into big 100s, going forward the next six games I want to get big 100s and win some games for the team.”
Promotion would have been simply unthinkable a matter of months ago but Leicestershire’s latest win moved them up to fourth in Division Two, 11 points behind leaders Essex with six four-day games left.
And it is not just the Foxes’ fledgling batsmen that have been left inspired this year, with league-leading wickettaker Clint McKay once again leading the charge at Cheltenham.
“It was a really important game for us in the grand scheme of the season and we played some of the best cricket we have played for a while,” Robson added.
“It was a make or break game to keep our promotion hopes alive so it was one of our better wins of the year.
“It’s hard to state what a great influence Clint has had on the club ever since he joined. He’s been great off the field and you could not ask for a better overseas professional.
“He gives his all, he runs in all day and bowls an enormous amount of overs and his success has been exactly what we needed as a club.”