Marcus Harris and Colin Ackermann lead Leicestershire to remarkable victory over Middlesex

Colin Ackermann hit the winning runs to see them home by five wickets to complete the third-highest successful fourth-innings run chase in Leicestershire’s history

Leicester (fourth day of four): Middlesex 295 & 218, Leicestershire 136 & 378-5 - Leicestershire win by five wickets

Scorecard

A superb 185 from Australian Test opener Marcus Harris enabled Leicestershire to break their duck for the LV=Insurance County Championship season by chasing down 378 to pull off a remarkable come-from-behind victory over Middlesex.

Leicestershire had been 159 in arrears on first innings after being bowled out for 136 but Harris and skipper Colin Ackermann, who made an unbeaten 126, shared a stand of 243 for the third wicket as Middlesex slipped to a sixth defeat, leaving them bottom of Group Two.

Although they suffered some jitters towards the end, Ackermann hit the winning runs to see them home by five wickets to complete the third-highest successful fourth-innings run chase in Leicestershire’s history, bettered only when they reached targets of 391 to beat Derbyshire in 1947 and 381 to beat Northamptonshire in 1980, each time at Grace Road.

The match had sharp echoes of the 2018 meeting between these sides on this ground, when Middlesex, having been 194 behind on first innings, chased down 381 in the last innings to pull off an unlikely win, albeit by just one wicket.

The omens did not look good for Leicestershire when Sam Evans fell to the seventh ball of the day, caught behind down the leg side for the second time in the match with only eight runs added to their overnight score and still 295 needed.

Yet Middlesex’s young bowling attack could not claim another wicket before the final session when a weary Harris stabbed at one outside off-stump and was caught behind off 22-year-old Thilan Walallawita, one of their two young spinners.

Shortly afterwards, Ackermann completed his first century for three years when he swept the same bowler for his 16th four, having faced 229 balls.

The Sri Lankan-born left-armer Walallawita set nerves jangling in the home crowd when he had new batsman Lewis Hill leg before in the next over.

Then Ackermann was dropped at third man by Martin Andersson off Ethan Bamber on 103 with 37 still required.

With 23 still needed, Leicestershire lost another wicket when Bamber uprooted Harry Swindells’s middle stump as the pressure began to tell but Ackermann and Ben Mike stayed calm, the captain hitting the winning runs when he swept leg-spinner Luke Hollman for three to fine leg with 23 balls to spare.

The left-handed Harris, who has 10 Test caps to his name, hit 21 fours and a six, having faced 311 deliveries. Until he was out, the only semblance of a chance he offered was on 175, when he was a whisker away from being caught and bowled by 20-year-old Hollman, who was unlucky that an impressive performance gained no reward.

The result underlined the value of Chris Wright’s 6 for 48 in Middlesex’s second innings to keep Leicestershire in the game.