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Match Report

Career best figures for Luke Wells as Leicestershire match heads towards a draw

22 Apr 2018

The Specsavers County Championship match between Sussex and Leicestershire at The Fischer County Ground looks to be heading towards a draw with the visitors reaching the close on day on 11-0 in their second innings.

Sussex’s bowlers were never less than fully committed during their 96 overs in the field on Sunday, but a flat wicket and a fine knock of 186 from Colin Ackerman saw Leicestershire declare their first innings on 422-9, 16 runs short of Sussex’s own effort.

Luke Wells bowled 27 overs of leg-spin – all of them today – and fully deserved first-class best figures of 4-81.

He broke a 131-run third wicket partnership when he caught Mark Cosgrove (66) off his own bowling to give Sussex their first wicket of the day shortly before lunch.

When David Wiese trapped Ateeq Javid in front for a stodgy 13 to leave Leicestershire four down and still 185 runs in arrears, Sussex would still have felt they had a chance to secure a significant first innings lead.

Ackerman and new man Neil Dexter steadily eroded the advantage over the next 22 overs, however, so that by the time Dexter was caught at the wicket by Ben Brown to give Wells his second wicket, Sussex’s lead had been reduced to 110.

Lewis Hill was Wells’ third victim – adjudged leg before after being deceived in the flight – before Ackerman and Ben Raine (40) put on 61 for the seventh wicket.

When a visibly tired Ackerman – he’d been at the crease for nearly six hours in total – was finally caught by Harry Finch in the slips when attempting to sweep Wells an hour into the evening session, Leicestershire were just 32 runs behind.

That was Wells’ fiftieth wicket in first-class cricket and gave him four victims in an innings for the first time.

At 406-7, a first innings lead for the home side looked likely, but it was testament to the persistence of Sussex’s bowlers that they picked up two more wickets in quick succession to prompt the declaration with Sussex still in the lead.

The first of those went to Ishant Sharma when Raine was caught behind. That gave the Indian, who bowled 29 whole-hearted overs, his third wicket of the innings.

Will Beer was then rewarded for his efforts in plugging away for much of the afternoon when Callum Parkinson was also caught by Ben Brown.

A word for Ollie Robinson who beat the bat on plenty of occasions when pitching the ball up as well as causing a fair few problems when banging it in short. He was very unlucky to finish wicketless.

Wells and Phil Salt had a tricky six overs to navigate at the end of the day, doing so without any real alarm.

Reflecting on the day, Wells said: "It was nice to get a prolonged bowl today, not having bowled properly for a long time through knee injuries and so on, so after not getting runs in the first innings it was nice to go out there and contribute, and I feel like I’m pretty much back to 100% fitness.

“It’s a rare sight to see two leg-spinners bowling in tandem, with myself and Will Beer, and I think we both enjoyed it.

“It’s been strange in a way, because I was just sort of becoming a recognised bowler when I got injured and I haven’t really bowled for 18 months to two years.  I feel like it adds a different dimension to my game and hopefully it will help us win a few games down the road as well.

“There’s something in the pitch with the new ball, but it’s basically an attritional wicket, hard work for both batters and bowlers, in a way. What turn there is is out of the footholds, out of the rough, but once the ball goes soft it becomes very difficult to beat the bat.”

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