{"id":303344,"date":"2025-07-30T07:35:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T07:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/303344\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T07:35:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T07:35:15","slug":"rehan-ahmed-lays-down-ashes-marker-with-a-fourth-leicestershire-ton-in-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/303344\/","title":{"rendered":"Rehan Ahmed lays down Ashes marker with a fourth Leicestershire ton in row"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Ashes winter beckons for Rehan Ahmed, who on Tuesday continued to showcase a precocious all-round talent with his fifth hundred of a spectacular coming-of-age summer (Mark Baldwin writes). There may never be another Ben Stokes, as there will never be another Ian Botham (though Stokes is coming thrillingly close), but what makes Ahmed\u2019s emergence so exciting is that England have never had a genuine leg-spinning Test all-rounder.<\/p>\n

Still a fortnight short of his 21st birthday, Ahmed\u2019s blossoming as a top-order batsman has been the most vivid story of the domestic season so far. Promoted to No3 in Leicestershire\u2019s order, he has now also scored a century in each of his past four championship appearances for the runaway Division Two leaders, 760 runs overall in 16 red-ball innings at 50.66, plus 20 wickets at just 15.15 runs apiece with the leg spin that earned him his five Test caps to date.<\/p>\n

Ahmed, who became England\u2019s youngest Test cricketer on his December 2022 debut, may yet add to his 16 white-ball internationals before this summer is out but it is the winter tour of Australia that provides England\u2019s selectors with the perfect opportunity to launch a second \u2014 fully fledged all-rounder \u2014 stage of his Test career. Australian pitches in particular should suit the leg breaks and googlies that brought him remarkable match figures of 13 for 144 in Leicestershire\u2019s victory last week against Derbyshire<\/a>, besides a first-innings score of 115 with the bat.<\/p>\n

\"Cricket<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old\u2019s 119 came in just 156 balls and included 20 boundaries<\/p>\n

JOHN MALLETT\/PROSPORTS\/SHUTTERSTOCK<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s 119 against Kent featured three sixes, the first hooked off Wes Agar to take him to his fifty, and 17 fours, the best a purely timed straight drive off George Garrett.<\/p>\n

Put in on a well-grassed surface, Leicestershire initially reached 201 for one as Ahmed joined Rishi Patel in a second-wicket partnership of 164 in 33 overs. Patel, dropped off Agar at third slip on nought from the fifth ball of the match, hit three sixes too in an excellent 85 but then charged unnecessarily at Matt Parkinson and was stumped.<\/p>\n

Parkinson, himself a Test leg spinner though with only the solitary cap, took a season\u2019s best seven for 104 and bowled a skilful round-the-wicket line to a succession of right-handers, including Ahmed, who was caught at slip, pushing defensively forward.<\/p>\n

His five centuries this season<\/p>\n

It was a fine effort by Parkinson, much needed by a team beaten in five of their past eight championship matches and 26 points adrift of seventh-placed Northamptonshire at the bottom of Division Two \u2014 and a sobering 95 behind the high-flying Leicestershire \u2014 after receiving an eight-point penalty for repeated dissent in previous games.<\/p>\n

Rew and Abell break Botham and Denning\u2019s record with 313-run fourth-wicket stand<\/p>\n

Trent Bridge<\/b> (first day of four; Nottinghamshire won toss): Somerset have scored 338 for four against Nottinghamshire<\/p>\n

Dawns rarely prove as false as this, although given a Kookaburra ball, a total recovery is never impossible (Neville Scott writes). Losing their first two wickets without a single run and teetering on 25 for three during a superb new-ball spell from Mohammad Abbas of 9-5-15-3, Somerset then added a club-record 313 for the fourth wicket as James Rew and Tom Abell both passed 150.<\/p>\n

Even amid the wreckage of the probing Abbas\u2019s mean effort under cloud cover, taking him to an 800th first-class wicket, Rew immediately looked outstanding. A surprise Abbas wide ball was impeccably driven through the covers and his only short ball instantly pulled for another boundary.<\/p>\n

In May Rew became the youngest Englishman since Denis Compton in 1939 to post ten first-class hundreds but, more remarkable perhaps for one who only turns 22 in January, is the mature calm that has helped him convert 21 scores past fifty into 11 centuries.<\/p>\n

\"James<\/p>\n

Rew continued his impressive first-class conversion rate: 11 of his 21 scores over 50 have reached three figures<\/p>\n

STEVE POOLE\/PROSPORTS\/SHUTTERSTOCK<\/p>\n

If Abell could not match his fluency after a summer when precise touch has eluded him, his first hundred in 27 innings soon followed Rew\u2019s just before tea and the evening found them matching each other run for run.<\/p>\n

Both sides will follow Surrey\u2019s progress in Durham, with Nottinghamshire a point behind the champions at the start and third-placed Somerset a further 16 adrift. Any stumble for undefeated Surrey would please those neutrals seeking the tensest of finishes to a campaign whose key fixture may yet come in mid-September when Notts visit the Oval with one further round to follow.<\/p>\n

\"Nottinghamshire<\/p>\n

The reliable Abbas took three wickets but Nottinghamshire had little else to celebrate in the field<\/p>\n

STEVE POOLE\/PROSPORTS\/SHUTTERSTOCK<\/p>\n

Few will be upset at the conclusion of this round of the Kookaburra games, however, after ten run-inflated draws in 15 Division One games so far. It is a ball so frequently bereft of life that it might better be named after the parrot in Monty Python\u2019s Flying Circus.<\/p>\n

But it did squawk first thing. Somerset\u2019s opening pairing has changed 12 times over their past 16 games and the latest alliance failed to survive two balls. Lewis Gregory fell patently leg-before, offering no shot, while Tom Lammonby came and went to second slip before Josh Davey\u2019s defensive edge was taken behind. <\/p>\n

Such calamity was mere history when Somerset\u2019s hitherto fourth-wicket best of 310 in 1980 between Botham and Peter \u201cDasher\u201d Denning was overhauled before Abell fell hooking two overs later for a career-best 156. Two balls later, bad light brought the close.<\/p>\n

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