Neesham instrumental in recovery from top-order implosion
Scott Currie was in the wickets for Leicestershire • Getty Images
Leicestershire 161 for 5 (Goldsworthy 67, Neesham 44) beat Nottinghamshire 160 for 6 (Martindale 44) by five wickets
All-rounder Lewis Goldsworthy hit a career-best 67 as Leicestershire Foxes maintained their push to win a place in the quarter-finals of the Vitality Blast with a five-wicket victory over East Midlands rivals Notts Outlaws at the Uptonsteel County Ground.
New Zealand’s Jimmy Neesham backed up Goldsworthy’s performance with 44 from 22 balls as the Foxes won with an over to spare – despite having been six for three at the start of their chase – condemning the Outlaws to an eighth defeat in what has been comfortably their worst season in the current Blast format.
With seven of the nine North Group counties chasing four qualifying places in a tight finish to the group season, the Foxes have 14 points but may still have to defeat group leaders Birmingham Bears in their final fixture at Edgbaston next Friday if they are to go through.
Ben Martindale, the 21-year-old left-hander, made 44 from 42 balls – his best in a fledgling T20 career – and skipper Joe Clarke 39 from 23 as the Outlaws made 160 for six, a mid-innings collapse rescued to a degree at the death by Liam Patterson-White (28 from 16) and Lyndon James (22 from 11), Scott Currie taking two for 35 for the Foxes.
But it was a score that proved not enough despite Olly Stone taking two for 22 from his four overs, Rehan Ahmed chipping in with 34 from 38.
Having opted to bat first, the Outlaws would have been pleased to be 49 without loss from six given their recent form. After taking only 10 runs from the first 16 deliveries, Clarke and Martindale plundered seven boundaries from the next 20.
Clarke lifted a Rehan full toss over the short boundary on The Meet side of the ground for his second six, quickly adding two more fours, but the partnership was broken on 68 as he fell to a catch on the cover boundary.
After a tentative start, Martindale grew in confidence, reverse pulling six off Goldsworthy but Notts were checked again in the 11th when Jack Haynes was caught at deep midwicket in a wicket-maiden by Josh Hull.
Martindale briefly broke free from a Foxes squeeze as he slogged Currie over the midwicket rope but an attempted repeat was brilliantly caught by Louis Kimber, keeping the ball in the air as he crossed the boundary and stepping back to take it inside.
Matt Montgomery and Tom Moores fell cheaply as the Outlaws slipped to 115 for five in the 17th but Liam Patterson-White, who hit back-to-back sixes off Hull before being caught off Currie off the penultimate ball, joined Lyndon James (22 not out off 11) in adding 45 from 20 balls to give the innings substance.
Indeed, 160 looked a decent total as the Foxes made a calamitous start, losing Sol Budinger, pulling to deep backward square, and Peter Handscomb, miscueing to extra cover, and Rishi Patel, bowled off an inside edge, to be six for three from 14 balls.
It could have been much worse for the home side, with two difficult slip chances and one comparatively comfortable return catch put down, Patterson-White giving Rehan a life on 21 in the third instance. As it was, by the halfway point, with no further losses, the Foxes needed 100 runs to win.
Rehan was caught at mid-off off James after the fourth wicket pair had added 76 but Goldsworthy, on loan from Somerset, chose the right moment to make his biggest contribution so far, hitting two sixes and six fours in a fine innings before holing out to deep midwicket off Patterson-White.
He added 54 with Neesham for the seventh wicket, leaving 25 more to get with his departure, the New Zealand all-rounder going most of the way to finishing the job with three sixes and two fours before Louis Kimber drove Fazalhaq Farooqi for the winning boundary.
