Andrew McDonald’s ton saved the day for Leicestershire in a match of the County Championship Division Two against Northamptonshire, at the County Ground Northampton in England.
The visitors were bowled out for 313 in their first innings on the first day’s play on Tuesday, May 24, 2011, but things could have been worse for them without a brave innings from McDonald.
Northamptonshire also came out to bat for 12 overs in the last session and reached 32 runs without a wicket. They still trail by 281 runs to the first innings total of the hosts, with three full days of play left in the match.
The pitch in Northampton appeared to be a good one for the batsmen and the visitors’ skipper, Matthew Hoggard, elected to bat first after winning the toss.
He would have expected a decent show by his batsmen, but things didn’t go exactly as planned for the visitors.
The start to the innings was terrible for Derbyshire, as they lost three quick wickets for just 15 runs on the board.
Opener, Will Jefferson, was the first man to be dismissed in the day after adding just one run to the total. He was followed by Paul Nixon and James Taylor, who only managed three and four runs respectively in the innings.
The innings was then stabilised by Matthew Boyce and McDonald, as the pair put together 71 runs for the fourth wicket partnership.
Boyce took his time to settle down, but was unable to carry onto the start he got to his innings and was dismissed after scoring 26 runs.
However, a 118-run stand between Wayne White and McDonald put the visitors in a strong position, as they guided the team’s total above 200. White missed out on a half-century though, as he fell just three runs shortof a fifty.
The Aussie all-rounder, McDonald, didn’t lose his focus from the game and continued to play in his aggressive manner. The right-handed player was a part of Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League (IPL), but didn’t get too many opportunities to prove his mettle to the franchise.
However, he didn’t miss out against Northamptonshire and scored a blistering 164 off just 140 balls. The innings included 26 fours and two thunderous sixes before McDonald’s assault finally came to an end.
Cameos of 27 and 23 from Jigar Naik and Claude Henderson guided the Derbyshire’s total above 300.
Jack Brooks was in tremendous form, picking up a five wicket haul for his team. He also got good support from David Lucas, who grabbed three wickets in the innings.
Northamptonshire’s openers, Stephen Peters and Ben Howgego, remained unbeaten on 26 and six runs respectively, before the day was called off by the umpires.
0 comments:
Post a Comment