Leicestershire romp to two-day victory against Kent

In possibly the most one-sided of Kent's 167 Canterbury Week games staged at the Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence, the Foxes out-scrapped and out-classed their title-chasing hosts from ball one to fully deserve their 20-point win

^{Harry Dearden scored 50 in Leicestershire's successful run chase}

Canterbury: Kent 104 & 199, Leicestershire 229 & 76-0 - Leicestershire won by 10 wickets

Scorecard

Harry Dearden hit a quick-fire 50 to help Leicestershire spank Kent by 10 wickets with two days to spare in their Specsavers County Championship clash in Canterbury.

In possibly the most one-sided of Kent's 167 Canterbury Week games staged at the Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence, the Foxes out-scrapped and out-classed their title-chasing hosts from ball one to fully deserve their 20-point win.

Having dismissed Kent for 104 on a feathery, greenish seamer after the opening day’s uncontested toss, Leicestershire batted sensibly to garner a match-defining first-innings lead of 125.

Batting second time around, Kent succumbed for 199 inside 50 overs, leaving the visitors to knock off 75 without loss in 15.4 overs for their fourth win of the campaign and with eight balls of day two still in hand.

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Paul Nixon, Leicestershire’s head coach said: “This was a wonderful message for us to send out to the rest of the division. The guys had to work hard on a pitch that was made slightly softer by the rain during Kent’s T20 game here on Friday.

“It was the right decision to bowl first and the way the guys bowled to build pressure was great to see. We held most of our catches, mainly through Ned Eckersley, who took eight in the game, and then went on to excel with the bat. His 79 on that pitch from 169 balls was as good an innings as we’ve had for Leicestershire this year.

“The lads are up in the dressing rooms dancing ‘Bollywood style’ in tribute to Abbas and they thoroughly deserve it because we’ve proved to the opposition that we wanted this win.”

Having conceded an 125-run first innings deficit, Kent lost Daniel Bell-Drummond for a fifth-ball duck without before lunch and, despite an improving pitch, faired even worse after the resumption to lose their last seven wickets for 66 runs inside 20 overs.

Report courtesy of the ECB Reporters Network