Foxes Edge PCA Masters
In conjunction with Paul Nixon’s Benefit Year, the PCA Masters travelled to Grace Road to play Leicestershire in a Twenty20 showdown on the eve of the competition starting for real.
Masters captain Nick Knight won the toss and elected to field against a full strength Leicester outfit.
Leicester’s openers utilised the fielding restrictions, especially HD Ackerman who was eventually dismissed in the eighties with six overs still remaining.
Nick Knight used his bowlers cleverly and the introduction of spin helped put the brakes on the Foxes innings. Both Peter Such and Carl Crowe were the pick of the Masters bowlers, each picking up useful wickets in the middle of the innings, enabling the Masters to restrict the Foxes to 178 off of their 20 overs.
The Masters innings started brightly with Jason Gallian scoring boundary’s in each of the first two overs, but after the loss of Darren Bicknell and Gallian in quick succession it was time for Knight and former England all rounder Chris Lewis to rebuild. This they did with a 70 run partnership taking the score over 100 with seven overs still remaining and thoughts of a shock win against the current champions. Unfortunately Chris Lewis was caught in the deep, which triggered a middle order collapse as the new batsmen strove to keep up with the increasing run rate. Only Dean Headley’s late flourish helped raise the Masters score to just under 150 mark with Captain Knight compiling a typically classy 52 not out and completing an excellent competitive match which would have been good practice for the Foxes team ahead of the Twenty20 season.
The PCA Masters XI at Leicester was;
Nick Knight (c)
Ismail Dawood (wk)
Darren Bicknell
Jason Gallian
Sherwin Campbell
Chris Lewis
Martin McCague
Carl Crowe
Dean Headley
Devon Malcolm
Peter Such
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