Lancashire 316 (Jennings 127, Bailey 60, Vilas 57) defeated Leicestershire 411 for 6 (Patel 161, Ackermann 100*, Budinger 81) by 95 runs.
In his career, Rishi Patel created a List. Using a score of 161, Leicestershire Foxes defeated Lancashire by 95 runs at Emirates Old Trafford to take the lead in Group A of the Metro Bank One-Day Cup.
Following Colin Ackermann’s even quicker century of 100 not out, the visitors amassed 411 for 6, their best total in List A cricket, thanks to Patel’s 129-ball innings. Patel also made history in Leicestershire by becoming the first player to ever hit a century in each of the three formats in the same season.
Lancashire’s captain Keaton Jennings scored 127 as a response, but the hosts were eventually dismissed for 316 runs, with debutant leg-spinner Uttam Ramji collecting 3 for 58 off 6.2 exciting overs.
The bowling of a dot ball during the opening innings of the game was an accomplishment. By putting up 159 runs in 21 overs, Patel and his opening partner Sol Budinger established a new mark for the first wicket in meetings between these counties and set the tone for their team’s effort.
In his 61-ball 81, Budinger smashed nine fours and three sixes. Budinger was caught at long-on by Tom Bailey off Tom Aspinwall, which started a brief collapse for the visitors. Lewis Hill and Peter Handscomb were both lost in the following six overs. However, both defeats only served as a warm-up for another blitz, as Patel and Ackermann added 110 runs in the following 13 overs.
When Patel hit Jack Blatherwick to Jennings at cover and the following ball, Wiaan Mulder was caught behind by Matty Hurst for two runs, ending Patel’s amazing performance. The Foxes were then on 311 for 5 in the 42nd over, but whatever happiness Blatherwick might have felt for getting his seventh List A wicket of the week was swiftly dashed when he delivered the second above waist-high full toss of the innings and was forced to leave the attack.
The pain also persisted in Lancashire. Will Williams’ delivery to Louis Kimber resulted in his being caught at deep midwicket for 15 runs, but Ackermann and Tom Scriven added 62 runs in 34 balls, and Ackermann reached 100 runs when he hit Bailey’s penultimate delivery of the session for a single. The 1996 List A 406 scored by Leicestershire against Berkshire thanks to Scriven’s six off the final ball was surpassed.
The only bowler to record multiple wickets, Blatherwick, ended with three for 70. Other than Balderson, who finished with one for 24 from five overs, the home team’s statistics included a government health advisory.
Lancashire’s openers scored 35 runs off the first four overs, needing 8.24 runs per over to win the match, but that promising start to the batting came to an end when Bell cut Chris Wright very hard to backward point, where Budinger took a superb catch.
When Josh Bohannon lifted Scriven high to short mid-on, where Mulder collected the catch while sprinting in from midwicket, he had hardly settled and had only made 10. Prior to two run-outs in the span of three overs setting the skids under Lancashire’s pursuit, Dane Vilas assisted Jennings in adding 77 in nine overs.
The non-striker was discharged in both instances. Vilas made 57, which is his third consecutive List appearance. When Jennings reverse-swept Ackermann, a fifty scampered down the wicket but was stopped by relay throws from Wright and Handscomb. Balderson then believed a single was conceivable when Jennings played the ball to cover but was stopped by Budinger’s throw to the rookie, Uttam Ramji.
After two more overs, Ramji, a graduate of the Grace Road Academy, claimed Matty Hurst for two runs leg before wicket, leaving Lancashire on 181 for five.
After making 16 from eight balls, the highly regarded Aspinwall then reverse-swept his ninth ball from Ackermann to Patel at backward point. After scoring his century off 92 balls and scoring 16 runs off the first three balls of Ramji’s fifth over, Jennings was eventually caught by Ackermann at deep midwicket while trying to hit a third maximum.
With a 42-ball 60, Bailey then offered some late resistance, but he was caught by Ramji at deep square-leg off Wright, and the debutant then removed Williams to seal his team’s well-earned victory.
