County Championship: Colin Ackermann and Lewis Hill hit tons for Leicestershire
- Published
Colin Ackermann compiled his 19th first-class century on the opening day against Notts
LV= County Championship Division Two, Uptonsteel County Ground, Leicester (day one) |
Leicestershire 340-8: Ackermann 116, Hill 104; Patterson-White 3-37 |
Nottinghamshire: Yet to bat |
Leicestershire 3 pts, Nottinghamshire 2 pts |
Lewis Hill and Colin Ackermann centuries helped winless Leicestershire to a productive day one in their County Championship clash with Nottinghamshire.
Despite being asked to bat first on a well-grassed pitch, the Foxes closed on 340-8 against promotion-chasing Nottinghamshire who arrived at Grace Road looking for a fifth win of the campaign.
Hill - only the second Leicestershire batter to reach three figures this summer - made 104, sharing a 141-run third-wicket stand with Ackermann who hit 116 to guide his side to their highest total of the campaign.
Notts claimed four wickets in the final session, but it was not the day they would have anticipated when skipper Steven Mullaney won the toss and bowled on a surface which had good pace and carry.
James Pattinson, back on the ground where he took a match-winning 5-29 on his Nottinghamshire debut in 2017, was celebrating after only his fourth delivery as Hassan Azad edged to third slip.
Pattinson went close several more times and should have had a second, Rishi Patel surviving on 15 when wicketkeeper Tom Moores palmed away what was probably a chance for first slip.
Patel was caught at first slip as Dane Paterson struck in his second over at first change, but Hill and Ackermann wasted few opportunities, putting on 66 in almost 15 overs as the hosts reached lunch at 129-2.
The afternoon followed a similar pattern until captain Mullaney ended Hill's fine innings of 15 fours, when the fifth ball of his second spell clipped Hill's off stump.
And the hosts were 233-4 at tea after Wiaan Mulder had thin-edged Pattinson to Moores.
Louis Kimber played nicely for 33 as he and Ackermann added 69 for the fifth wicket, Ackermann bringing up his ton off James, a first hundred for the former skipper in more than a year.
Liam Patterson-White, the left-arm spinner, found some turn to bowl Kimber, and Harry Swindells was quickly seen off by a swinging delivery from Brett Hutton after Nottinghamshire took the second new ball.
Ackermann departed in the third-last over of the day, a tentative prod to Patterson-White ending in the hands of slip, and the spinner then removed Callum Parkinson with the last ball of the day.
Report supplied by the ECB Reporters' Network