Saturday, May 9th, 2015

Five Wicket Haul For Leach On Opening Day Of Derby Clash

Five Wicket Haul For Leach On Opening Day Of Derby Clash

Joe Leach returned the second five wicket haul of his career on the opening day of Worcestershire's LV = County Championship derby with Warwickshire at Edgbaston.

Leach maintained the good form he had showed against Somerset when scoring 93 and taking five wickets in the game.

He ended the day with figures of 24-5-68-5 as Warwickshire closed on 268-8 after being put into bat by Worcestershire skipper Daryl Mitchell in blustery and cloudy conditions.

Warwickshire were made to work hard for their runs on a day where there was always encouragement for the seamers with 19-year-old Sam Hain top-scoring with 82.

Leach began with two maidens and broke through in his next over when Varun Chopra (3) edged to Mitchell who took a good catch at second slip with nine runs on the board.

Ian Porterfield collected a couple of boundaries off Charlie Morris who had taken career best match figures of 9-109 against Somerset.

Leach made the second breakthrough when Westwood was adjudged lbw for eight to leave the Bears on 20-2 in the 10th over.

Leach was finally taken out of the attack after excellent figures of 8-3-11-2.

Jack Shantry, who had taken the last four Somerset wickets in the space of 17 balls on Tuesday, struck for the first time in this game to remove Porterfield who was caught behind down the legside by keeper Ben Cox after making 29.

Warwickshire were then 53-3 in the 24th over and by lunch had moved onto 70-3 with Laurie Evans on 23 and Sam Hain six.

Hain and Laurie Evans added 87 in 30 overs for the fourth wicket before Leach enjoyed another double success.

Evans (50 from 133 balls) mispulled Leach to mid-on and Tim Ambrose then had his middle stump sent flying after making a single.

Hain found another resolute partner in Rikki Clarke and they added 73 before both perished to the new ball after tea.

Leach trapped Hain (82, 166 balls, seven fours) lbw with an excellent delivery and then Morris had Clarke, (37 from 91 balls) caught at mid-off and Jeetan Patel pouched behind.

Keith Barker and Chris Wright added an unbroken 27 in the closing overs of the day.