It had been a long time coming, 993 days to be precise, so while the head coach, Andrew McDonald, gently let it be known he considered a one-off championship victory worthy of only relatively restrained celebration, the moment when Leicestershire’s Lewis Hill pushed the winning run was understandably greeted with an explosion of joy by long-suffering supporters.
That it was Hill, Leicester-born and a product of the county’s academy, who hit the winning stroke – having swept the previous delivery for six – made the moment even more special. Needing 163 to win for the first time since September 2012, and beginning the day on 55-0, the Foxes briefly wobbled, losing four wickets while adding only 30 runs, but were seen home by Hill and Andrea Agathangelou, making his debut for Leicestershire after impressing for the seconds on trial.
Agathangelou admitted he had never felt so moved, on returning to the dressing room after hitting a rumbustious 42 not out. “I’ve got to be honest, I’ve never experienced anything like that before in my life,” said the 25-year-old former Lancashire batsman. “The passion that the boys showed almost brought me to tears and for me to feel that kind of emotion having just come into the side gives you some idea of what it means.”
For Hill, a wicketkeeper-batsman playing in only his fourth first-class game but already with a century and half-century to his name, it was a moment he will never forget. “It was pretty special, I’ve been around the club from being a youngster and seeing the slide down and now turning the corner and heading back up – it’s a great feeling. There’s confidence in the dressing room now and that target of promotion we gave ourselves at the start of the season, I honestly don’t believe it’s beyond us.”
Well, maybe. But it is certainly true a win can transform a team, particularly a team full of good and, in some cases, very good players like Leicestershire’s. No one watching the hour-long spell bowled by their overseas player, the Australian one-day international seamer Clint McKay, at the former – as he must now probably be referred to – England batsman Ravi Bopara on the morning of the third day of this game, or the outstanding first-innings century scored by the opener Angus Robson (followed by an almost equally fine 71 in the second innings) on a seaming pitch would be wise to underestimate the quality in their ranks.
“We’ve played a lot of good cricket this season but we’ve been losing key moments within games,” said McDonald, without being specific, though it is worth pointing out that while much was made of the 355 not out scored by Surrey’s Kevin Pietersen against Leicestershire recently, less was made of the fact he was dropped five times in the process.
“In this match we won the key moments. It’s a pretty simple game,” said McDonald. “We knew we’d probably lose wickets at certain times, but Hilly and Aggers at the end there knocked it off nicely and it was good the young kid was there. Robson is a fine player, he made batting look easy on a pitch when others didn’t.”
Leicestershire’s chief executive, Wasim Khan, another new broom, was on hand to witness the win, adding to the sense of renewal for a county that has won the County Championship three times, and can only boast three one-day trophies, two Sunday Leagues, and three T20 competition wins. With that record, far better than a number of other counties with considerably greater resources, small wonder t
The recent lack of success has been hard to take, though it is also a reminder to the critics that Leicestershire have nearly always punched above their weight while producing a stream of players snapped up by other counties, who have often gone on to play for England. So too, of course, have Essex who will no doubt come in for criticism for being the county to end the Foxes’ miserable run.
The sound of the Leicestershire victory song, Fields of Grace Road, ringing out across Chelmsford after the end of a 37-match winless streak, and their first away victory since 2010, was certainly unfamiliar, though.
While some in the side, including Matthew Boyce, Ned Eckersley and Jigar Naik, were in the Leicestershire side that beat Gloucestershire in the final game of the 2012 season, others had to have the song’s words written out for them.
Beating Surrey when the Londoners come to Grace Road next Sunday would help them commit it to memory.
