Thursday, October 3rd, 2024

LEACH ENDS FINAL SEASON AS JOINT LEADING WICKET-TAKER

Joe Leach ended his final season before hanging up his spikes as Worcestershire’s leading wicket-taker in Vitality County Championship cricket for the seventh time.

The 33-year-old picked up 27 wickets including 6-52 in the victory against Kent at Visit Worcestershire New Road.

Leach, who defied a knee injury to play in the finale to the season, had to share the honour on this occasion with New Zealander Nathan Smith and newcomer Tom Taylor.

Smith made his mark before a hamstring injury cut short his spell at New Road and Taylor was a consistent wicket-taker during the second half of the season on his return from injury.

He achieved career best figures of 6-28 in the home fixture with Warwickshire.

On the batting front Kashif Ali was Worcestershire’s leading run-scorer with 767 at an average of 42.61.

Kashif, in his first full season of red ball cricket, struck two centuries and five fifties.

Openers Jake Libby (710) and Gareth Roderick (695) were the other main contributors while Adam Hose (526) and Club Brett D’Oliveira (518) also topped the 500 run mark.

VITALITY COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP AVERAGES

BATTING (LEADING 12)

Home Matches 2, Inns 3, Not Out 2, Runs 45, Highest 29, Average 45.00

Kashif 12, 20, 2, 767, 133, 42.61

Gibbon 4, 3, 1, 80, 75, 40.00

Holder 5, 6, 1, 186, 123*, 37.20

Waite 10, 14, 1, 433, 100*, 33.30

D’Oliveira 12, 17, 1, 518, 97, 32.37

Libby 14, 23, 1, 710, 101*, 32.27

Brookes 7, 12, 1, 345, 132, 31.36

Smith 7, 8, 1, 214, 60, 30.57

Roderick 14, 23, 0, 695, 122, 30.21

Hose 14, 22, 1, 526, 90, 25.04

Van Beek 4, 7, 1, 144, 48, 24.00

BOWLING (LEADING 12)

Allison Inns 3, Overs 50.2, Maidens 12, Runs 142, Wickets 7, Average 20.28

Smith 12, 178.3, 36, 571, 27, 21.14

Taylor 10, 161.0, 20, 580, 27, 21.48

Van Beek 7, 91.0, 7, 374, 13, 28.76

Hartshorn 2, 30.0, 9, 89, 3, 29.66

Brookes 9, 88.0, 23, 250, 8, 31.25

Waite 16, 211.0, 46, 618, 19, 32.52

Leach 19, 290.4, 61, 903, 27, 33.44

Virdi 5, 136.4, 14, 469, 14, 33.50

Singh 2, 27.3, 1, 146, 4, 36.50

Finch 11, 145.5, 19, 621, 17, 36.52

Gibbon 7, 102.1, 16, 347, 8, 43.37