T20 Blast: Yorkshire outfoxed as Ackermann stars at Grace Road

Leicestershire won comfortably, scoring 211-7 after being sent into bat, Yorkshire replying with 151-9.

Colin Ackermann was man-of-the-match, the Leicestershire captain top-scoring with an unbeaten 72, from 46 balls with nine fours, before following-up with 2-21 from four overs of off-spin.

It inspired a fifth straight T20 win for the hosts on a bittersweet afternoon for the South African-born all-rounder and his team.

On a mostly cloudy if clement day, with the sun peeking through from time to time, Leicestershire were given a rapid start by Nick Welch.

The opener flayed five sixes and three fours in a 23-ball innings that had brought 46 when he was dismissed in the fifth over, caught by George Hill at deep mid-wicket off Matty Revis.

It followed a wicket for Hill from the game’s fifth ball, when Lewis Hill lobbed to mid-off, but Ackermann and Arron Lilley established a solid foundation as they lifted the score to 56-2 by the end of the powerplay and then to 97-2 at the halfway mark.

Their stand had reached 55 from 34 balls when Lilley fell, slicing Shadab Khan to short third-man, having struck 35 from 23 balls with three fours and a six.

Leicestershire wobbled as David Willey, the Yorkshire captain, took wickets with successive deliveries in the 14th over to leave the home side 131-5, but Ackermann found another ally in Louis Kimber, who whacked 30 from the No 8 position in 11 balls, including three fours and a brace of sixes.

The pair shared 60 in 26 as Yorkshire lost their way at the death, conceding 65 from the final four overs.

Willey was impressive with 3-29 and Revis, too, with 3-32. Otherwise, the bowling was expensive.

On a true pitch, the cards were always in the favour of the batsmen, which made the work of Leicestershire’s spinners, Ackermann, Rehan Ahmed and Callum Parkinson the more impressive.

Ahmed, the 17-year-old leg-spinner (cricketers, like policemen, seem to be getting younger by the day), led the way with 3-17 from four overs and there were two wickets for pace bowler Wiaan Mulder.

Only Adam Lyth produced an innings of note for the visitors, scoring 52 from 25 balls with seven fours and two sixes.

It was the left-hander’s fifth half-century in 14 group games and lifted him to and beyond 500 runs in this year’s competition.

Yorkshire still seemed on top after the batting powerplay, which they finished on 70-1, before the spinners slowly but steadily put on the squeeze.

Harry Brook chipped in with 21 from 19, but the intensity seemed to go out of the contest, with Yorkshire through to the last-eight following earlier events and Leicestershire unable to pip them to the post, with dull inevitability descending on Grace Road.

A pair of defeats, against Birmingham Bears and now this, sends Yorkshire into the quarter-finals in need of an uplift in form, but anything can happen in knockout cricket and their first target, at least, has now been achieved.