Sunday, September 8th, 2019

LEACH MAKES HIS MARK WITH BAT AND BALL ON RETURN FROM BACK INJURY

Worcestershire Club Captain Joe Leach has contributed with bat and ball in the Specsavers County Championship on his return to action this summer after recovering from a stress fracture of the back.

The 28-year-old has chipped in with 373 runs at an average of more than 31 and is currently County’s leading wicket-taker with 35 scalps.

Since missing the opening game against Leicestershire whilst continuing his rehab, Leach has played in all 10 matches since his return from 10 months out of first team action.

His run tally includes two half centuries – 54 not out against Sussex at Kidderminster and an unbeaten 53 versus Northamptonshire at Wantage Road.

His list of victims with the ball includes a season’s best haul of 6-73 against Gloucestershire at Cheltenham.

Leach has also bowled the most overs – 331.4 – while Josh Tongue heads the bowling averages but has been restricted to four Championship appearances because of injury.

Wicket-keeper batsman Ben Cox is Worcestershire’s highest Championship run-scorer with 521 at 32.56.

Charlie Morris (33) and Ed Barnard (32) are the main wicket-takers behind Leach as the County head into the final three Championship matches of the season.

BATTING

Rutherford Matches 1m Inns 1, Not Out 0, Runs 123, Highest 123, Average 123.00

Moeen Ali 1, 2, 0, 82, 42, 41.00

D’Oliveira 6, 9, 1, 298, 103, 37.25

Cox 11, 18, 2, 521, 100*, 32.56

Ferguson 9, 17, 1, 503, 127, 31.43

Leach 10, 16, 4, 373, 54*, 31.08

Whiteley 10, 16, 1, 391, 88, 26.06

Wessels 11, 19, 2, 439, 118, 25.82

Parnell 6, 8, 0, 205, 63, 25.62

Barnard 11, 17, 1, 358, 56, 22.37

Mitchell 11, 20, 2, 374, 114, 20.77

Fell 4, 7, 0, 136, 40, 19.42

Dell 6, 11, 0, 158, 61, 14.36

Tongue 3, 6, 0, 51, 20*, 12.75

Rhodes 3, 6, 0, 59, 28, 9.83

Morris 8, 11, 6, 49, 15, 9.80

Haynes 1, 2, 0, 19, 19, 9.50

Finch 4, 5, 3, 15, 8*, 7.70

Pennington 3, 6, 0, 29, 18, 4.83

Milton 1, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0.00

BOWLING

Tongue Inns 7, Overs 113.3, Maidens 23, Runs 322, Wickets 17, Best 5-37, Average 18.94

Morris 15, 232.1, 56, 713, 33, 7-45, 21.60

Parnell 9, 141.3, 34, 468, 21, 5-47, 22.28

Barnard 20, 310.4, 82, 835, 32, 4-22, 26.09

Leach 19, 331.4, 74, 932, 35, 6-79, 26.62

Pennington 6, 97.0, 24, 254, 7, 2-92, 36.28

D’Oliveira 10, 162.5, 22, 519, 14, 7-92, 37.07

Whiteley 12, 79.4, 5, 303, 8, 2-35, 37.87

Moeen Ali 2, 41.1, 8, 145, 3, 3-126, 48.33

Finch 7, 97.5, 17, 384, 6, 2-41, 64.00

Mitchell 7, 22.0, 4, 52, 0, —-, —-

Rhodes 4, 22.2, 2, 90, 0, —-, —-