Leicestershire got off to the worst possible defence of their T20 title as East Midlands rivals Nottinghamshire thrashed them by six wickets with seven overs to spare.
Leicestershire were bowled out for just 96 in 17.3 overs. That was Leicestershire's lowest ever T20 score. 13 was the top individual score, this was reached by Ramnaresh Sarwan, Wayne White and the extras.
Leicestershire lost wickets at regular intervals and just never recovered. Nottinghamshire bowled brilliantly with man-of-the match Steve Mullaney taking a very impressive 4 for 19 from his 4 overs. Samit Patel also bowled economically taking 2 for 20 off his 4 overs.
Matthew Hoggard opened Leicestershire's bowling with a maiden and then quickly picked up Alex Hales and Riki Wessels. But with such a low target to defend there was little the bowlers could do. Adam Voges and Patel played cameos to get Nottinghamshire towards their target. Michael Lumb remained unbeaten on 25 after opening the innings. James Taylor, in his first season for Nottinghamshire after his move from Leicestershire, made 16 off 6 balls. Only a small insight to Taylor's form, but he looked in fine nick and deserves to be in the England team.
The Foxes are resilient and good at comebacks so no-one should write them off yet. However, with key players missing from last year's successful campaign, such as Paul Nixon, James Taylor, Andrew MacDonald and Jigar Naik, through retirement, moving clubs or injury, it will be a struggle for Leicestershire to re-build the team. Let's see how Leicestershire perform against Lancashire on Friday.
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