Emotional scenes as Leicestershire end long wait

Leicestershire 280 (Robson 120) and 163 for 4 (Robson 71) beat Essex 166 (Raine 5-48) and 276 (Westley 97, ten Doeschate 77, McKay 5-71) by six wickets
Scorecard

At one minute past one, with lunch looming and Essex's fielders resigned to their fate, Leicestershire's Lewis Hill nudged the single into the covers that consigned to history one of the most ignominious runs of failure in the history of county cricket.

Nine-hundred and ninety-two days have elapsed since Leicestershire last recorded a victory in the County Championship. On September 14, 2012, they squeaked over the line by two wickets against Gloucestershire at Grace Road, but since that date they had lost 21 of their 37 matches, six by an innings, a further five by nine wickets or more.

Seasons came and seasons went without a sniff of glory - two whole campaigns and 33 months in all - until finally, this morning, with 108 runs still required, and ten wickets in hand with which to get them there, a new-look Leicestershire team containing just three men who had played in that last long-distant victory, seized their chance to start afresh.

The equation looked simple enough at the start of play - 108 runs still required with ten wickets in hand, after Angus Robson and Matt Boyce (one of the three survivors, along with Ned Eckersley and Jigar Naik) had launched their pursuit of 163 with a volley of positive intent on the third evening.

When Jesse Ryder's first over was dispatched for three fours, including a comedy overthrow that nutmegged the keeper, James Foster, it seemed the chase was set to continue in the same vein. But then Boyce snicked Ryder to Nick Browne at first slip to depart for 24, and the introduction of Jamie Porter brought with it a new level of angst for the visitors.

Eckersley managed just 3 before Porter flattened his off stump, before repeating the trick four balls later to see off the captain, Mark Cosgrove, for 2. And then Robson, whose first-innings 120 had set up his side's victory chance, then made it four wickets for 30 in 11 overs when he feathered a leg glance to the keeper for 71.

"I had really wanted to be there at the end on a great day for the club," said Robson. "I was a little worried when Cossy got out and we were three-down. That was when I had to knuckle down and get us another 20 or 30 runs. But once it got below fifty we were confident."

With the back of the run-chase broken, the stage was cleared for the club's newest signing to confirm the start of a brand-new era. Andrea Agathangelou, recently of Lancashire, hadn't even had a chance to return home to change his clothes after being fast-tracked into the contest off the back of his second-team debut last week.

"To say it's been a bit of a rush is an understatement," he said. "I haven't been home in two weeks. I only have two days of clothes in my bag so to be given the nod to play in this game has caught me off guard, but it's something that I'll relish."

Agathangelou's 42 from 41 balls with seven fours turned an anxious morning into a celebration among the Leicestershire faithful who, like the new chief executive Wasim Khan, had made the trip from Grace Road specially for the occasion. One fan likened the morning to the day of his A-Level results - the sort of butterflies that come when you are sure that everything's going to be okay, but you can't quite rule out a catastrophe.

The winning hit, fittingly, was left to a man who embodies both new and old. Hill has been lurking on the fringes of Leicestershire's squad since 2009, but finally made his first-class debut exactly a month ago. His 57 against Kent was swiftly followed up by a maiden hundred against Surrey, and at the age of 24, his ebullience of youth was just what the team required today. A massive six over midwicket off Aron Nijjar brought the scores level before his scampered single sealed the deal.

"It's a great feeling for all of us, because we've had some dark days in the last couple of years," said Hill. "But we've felt this was coming all season, after the changes at the club in the winter, with Wasim Khan coming in as chief executive and a new captain and coach.

"I was a bit nervous going in after we'd lost a couple of wickets but tried to concentrate on my batting and Andrea was great at the other end. I wasn't sure at first whether that last one was going past cover, and I ended up coming back for a second even though we didn't need it - I've already had some stick from the lads for that.

"We had a good sing in the dressing room but this won't be it for us now - we want to start climbing up that table, and thinking about promotion like we said before the start of the season."

For Agathangelou, a fringe member of Lancashire's plans for five seasons, the joy of being pitched right into the heart of something so special was written all over his features - and clearly audible from the side of the pitch, as Leicestershire's team song was belted out in the dressing room.

"I've never in my cricketing career experienced anything like that in my life," Agathangelou said. "The amount of emotion involved in that team song and that dressing room when we walked off the field today was something I've never experienced. It almost brought me to tears to be honest, the emotion was flowing, and I couldn't have asked for a better side to play."

For Andrew McDonald, the former Australia allrounder who has been quietly making his mark on the squad as Leicestershire's new coach, the result was a vindication of his forward-looking approach.

"I've only been here two months, and that's our first win in two months," he said. "I've never been too bothered about what happened in the past. This is a fresh start, there have been eras at Grace Road where they've won titles and lost titles, but the past is the past."