County Championship 2022 | Tidy stuff from Conners help team keep Leicestershire shut

Leicestershire and Derbyshire are up against each in the third round of the County Championship Division Two 2022 at Leicester. Both teams have no victories in two appearances and are striving for a much-needed win under their belt.

On the early morning on Day 1, the Leicestershire team won the toss and opted to bat but had an average outing on the first day of the fixture.

The top-order of the home team could not provide an excellent start to the team. One of the openers, Hasan Azad, was dismissed on 17 off 37 balls.

The experienced campaigners George Rhodes and Colin Ackermann, too, failed while getting out on a single-digit score. However, the partnership of 69 runs between the opener Samuel Evans and Protea all-rounder Wiaan Mulder helped them recover from a bad start.

In the lower order, Ed Barnes displayed refined composure to remain unbeaten on 34 off 72 balls and steer the team to a respectable total of 213.

The Derbyshire bowlers were up to their task to put pressure on the opposition and consistently took wickets. The right-arm pacer, Samuel Conners, was the top performer with four wickets to his name.

The duo of Suranga Lakmal and Nick Potts picked up two wickets each, with the latter taking the prize scalp of Leicestershire captain Colin Ackermann.

In response, Derbyshire openers Shan Masood and Billy Godleman started on a cautious note. Then, however, the Protea left-arm pacer Beuran Hendricks bowled a terrific bouncer to dismiss the Derbyshire captain Godleman, who was taken aback by the change in strategy of the bowler. 

The Pakistan batter Shan Masood has started positively and is coming off after a terrific PSL and will hold the key for the team on the second day of the fixture. Along with him, the middle-order batter Leus du Plooy will look to stitch crucial partnerships to get the first-innings lead.

Brief scores on Day 1: Derbyshire- 36/1 (Shan Masood 20*, Brooke Guest 8*, Beuran Hendricks 1/11) trail Leicestershire – 213/10 (Samuel Evans 63, Wiaan Mulder 39, Samuel Conners 4/62) by 177 runs.