Ben Raine ended up with 4 for 57 – Getty Images
Northants 199 for 8 (Proctor 82, Raine 4-54) lead Leicestershire 128 (Raine 57, Sanderson 5-39, Gleeson 5-49) by 71 runs
Ben Raine is a combative soul, a sort of Ben Stokes type without the England caps, the headings and the fondness for street theatre. Nearly solitarily, he has actually challenged the idea that Northants will pip Nottinghamshire for promo which Leicestershire are condemned to a winless season.
Raine played age-group cricket with Stokes at Durham. Even on such days like this, he will most likely firmly insist that he would enjoy to be compared to him. He struck 59 to avoid a thrashing and after that took 4 wickets to welcome hopes of an improvement beyond belief. Ideally he followed up with an early night and a cocoa.
Till Raine's intervention, it had actually taken less than 17 overs for 2 realities to be obtained from a remarkable very first session at Grace Road: first of all, Leicestershire, disallowing wonders, were most likely to withstand a winless season, and Northants' promo obstacle was still quite alive.
Or, as their previous England batsman Ben Duckett nicely put it on Twitter, as he missed out on the match through injury: “COME ON THE CHUBSTERS!”
After bit more than an hour of reoccuring, Leicestershire were 26 for 7. You do not desire a home match in late September, with the toss guidelines as they are, when you are adrift at the bottom of the table.
Leicestershire prevented a historical low as Raine rallied however even he might not completely balance out a day that ended with Northants leading by 71 with 2 wickets staying. He definitely inflamed a side that had actually prepared for far higher riches.
Now for the math, sort of. Northants, 3rd, have Nottinghamshire, in 2nd, in their sights. A Notts win would end Northants' difficulty, however Notts remain in chaos at Hove. If Notts leave with a draw, that will most likely be adequate for them. If Notts lose and Northants beat Leicestershire, the Chubsters are First Division-bound.
This, it must be stressed out, is the exact same Northants side which Peter Moores, the Notts coach who has actually led the county to both limited-overs prizes, and who had factor to prepare for a treble just a couple of weeks back, would provide with way of life sheets and enforce penalty runs if they were ever captured seeing The Great British Bake OffThis is likewise the Northants side which, according to the analysis favoured within the Test match counties, apparently simply focuses on T20 and does not care 2 hoots for the Championship. There's that theory gone then.
Leicestershire's lightweight resistance will doubtless bring in criticism. Their very name welcomes greed amongst some organization types who simply wish to close them down and divide out the earnings.
