Despite winning their crucial encounter against Yorkshire fair and square by sixty runs, the Leicestershire Foxes were dramatically eliminated from the T20 Blast on Sunday. The team saw two valuable points deducted by the Cricket discipline commission as a penalty for two on-field misconducts.
Two Leicestershire players, Naveen-ul-Haq and Arron Lilley, were involved in the incidents. While Naveen, the pacer from Afghanistan, bowled two consecutive beamers in the 19th over, Lilley had a nasty clash with Jimmy Neesham following the latter’s dismissal.
These behaviours were adjudged to have breached the ECB directive 3.6, which is why the Grace-road-based cricket club have been handed a two-point-penalty.
As a result of this penalty, the Foxes slipped down to the seventh spot and missed the quarter-final berth. On the other hand, the elimination of Leicestershire proved to be a boon for the losing team Yorkshire as the David Willey-led side qualified for the knock-out stage commencing from Wednesday (6 July).
Talking about the match, Leicestershire posted a mammoth total of 211 runs after being invited to bat first, courtesy of a blistering 46-ball-72 by Colin Ackermann. In reply, Yorkshire continuously lost wickets and could score only 151 runs, despite a heroic 25-ball-52 by the experienced Adam Lyth.
As it stands, Surrey will face Yorkshire in the first qualifier, whereas Warwickshire will lock horns with Hampshire in the second qualifier. Similarly, Lancashire and Somerset will be up against Essex and Derbyshire in the third and fourth quarter-finals.