LONDON: Stylish and aggressive Umar Akmal scored an unbeaten half-century as Leicestershire put a brake ended Birmingham’s NatWest T20 Blast hot streak with a comfortable seven-wicket win at Edgbaston.
Birmingham were looking for a fifth successive win in the North Group and posted a solid total of 160 for 5 thanks mainly to Tim Ambrose’s third T20 half-century, a well-judged unbeaten 66 from 54 balls with seven fours and a six. But Leicestershire bounced back from the previous night’s defeat at Derby to reach 164 for three with nine balls to spare.
Mark Cosgrove laid the platform with a blistering 44 from 23 balls and then Niall O’Brien and Umar Akmal saw them home with an unbroken stand of 93 in 70 balls.
Leicestershire got off to a flier, reaching 50 in the fourth as Cosgrove fed voraciously on some over pitched bowling. The Australian raced to 44 from with seven fours, one six before falling lbw to Jeetan Patel’s fifth delivery.
That was 71 for 3 and Birmingham sensed an opportunity to start a collapse but O’Brien and Akmal played it perfectly. Under no pressure to go for big shots they milked the bowling as the Foxes won at a canter, Akmal notching a half-century on his farewell appearance as stand-in overseas player for Kiwi star Grant Elliott who will return next week.
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