Leicestershire v Nottinghamshire day one:
Leicestershire 222 (Trego 3-46), Nottinghamshire 48-0 (Hameed 34*).
Asked to sign white-ball only terms during the latter stages of his career at Somerset, Peter Trego could easily have opted to revel in the remnants of relative relaxation brought on by limited-overs specialism.
Instead, such was the all-rounder’s yearning for red-ball action, he turned out in Minor Counties cricket for Devon.
Trego’s traditionalist tenacity was to be rewarded when he signed as an all-format cricketer for Nottinghamshire, where he has so far been ever-present in the side.
Chiselled of body and youthful of mind, his bowling – to date – had been nagging and accurate; his fielding athletic; his enthusiasm undimmed; his wisdom tapped into with relish.
Until today, however, Trego had been not so patiently awaiting his first truly match-defining performance.
It was only a matter of time.
Handed the new-ball on a cloudy and blustery morning, the wily Western-Super-Marian had it on a string from the outset.
Evans, Dearden and Ackermann each had no answer; Leicestershire 22-3.
A delivery that did everything, a high-class batsman left powerless and a Mullaney masterclass at slip; the third of those wickets – that of the Leicestershire captain for four – was a thing of red-ball cricketing beauty.
In this kind of form, so too is the man that delivered the ball.
Trego had commenced the foxhunt in fine fettle. Now to rollout the rest of the cavalry.
The next hit was pure surrender; Azad snaffled by Slater at point as Lyndon James enjoyed a utopian opening to his first appearance of the season.
For Zak Chappell, meanwhile, it was a tale of tantalising near misses before an unplayable delivery of archetypal proportions accounted for Rhodes and – at 54-5 – the Foxes were in grave danger of catastrophic collapse.
Tom Taylor, however, came out swinging and sprinting; twice surviving close run-out calls but striking the ball sweetly on his way to a 60-ball half-century.
At the other end, Swindells had been stoic and stubborn for 33. His wicket, lbw to Samit Patel, was – following a partnership of 81 - met with some relief as well as delight.
Taylor, on 57, threw the bat at one too many from Barber and was caught at third-man; 137-7.
Weighell’s play-on was rich reward for the persistence of the otherwise largely luckless Chappell; Griffiths nicked a rising delivery from Barber through to Tom Moores and – when Patel returned to clean bowl number 11 Evans for a single - the Leicestershire innings was over on 222.
Nottinghamshire’s openers had 12 overs to survive, or in Haseeb Hameed’s case to flourish; a succession of attractive boundaries easing the right-hander to 34 not out at the close, with the visitors 48-0.
*******
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