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Leicestershire CCC bowlers battered by Kent

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If Leicestershire are to mount any kind of a challenge in the County Championship this season they will have to bowl with a good deal more discipline than they showed on the opening day of their match against Kent.

The visitors, having been put in, posted a healthy first innings total of 406 as the boundaries flowed throughout the day with the County attack unable to contain their opponents.

A tally of 51 boundaries – plus a brace of sixes – tells its own tale.

Not all the fours in the morning session were off the middle of the bat by any stretch of the imagination and, with a little bit of luck on their side, Leicestershire may well have taken more than the two wickets they did claim before lunch.

But during the afternoon and evening sessions, the vast bulk of the runs came out of the meat of the bat as Leicestershire's bowlers erred too often in length with the Kent batters preying on anything too short or too full.

That meant County were never able to build up any large degree of pressure on Kent, who must have been satisfied with the way they built their total.

There were mitigating factors for the County. For a start, the conditions were far from ideal for the bowlers with a stiff breeze blowing down the ground all day.

More significantly, though, Leicestershire are currently lacking experience in the seam department.

Injuries have hit them in the early part of the season, and that situation was not helped by the fact that Matthew Hoggard was only able to send down five overs yesterday before he left the field. Nathan Buck, Anthony Ireland and Alex Wyatt are already sidelined with a variety of ailments.

The likes of Ollie Freckingham, Robbie Williams and Shiv Thakor are all learning their trade and, while all three sent down enough quality deliveries yesterday to show they have plenty to offer with the ball, none is yet the finished article.

Freckingham picked up the wickets of Brendan Nash and Michael Powell, Williams accounted for Rob Key and Thakor managed to bowl Mark Davies.

But off-spinner Jigar Naik, with 4-97, was Leicestershire's most successful bowler in conditions which hardly encouraged slow bowling.

Nash made 50 but it was the half-centuries from Geraint Jones and Matt Coles which really hurt County as they added 104 for the seventh wicket.

Wicket-keeper Jones top-scored with 67, while Coles cracked his way to 59, which included nine fours and a mighty straight six.

Before that pair came together, Leicestershire were threatening to gain the upper hand, having reduced Kent to 207-6.

Over the course of the next 19 overs, the initiative swung back firmly to the visitors, who still held sway when Callum Haggett was the last man out, chipping Naik to Matthew Boyce at midwicket to bring the day's play to a close.

Leicestershire CCC bowlers battered by Kent


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