Josh Hull's Remarkable 97 Revives Leicestershire's Hopes
Josh Hull, the 22-year-old fast bowler picked to protect Leicestershire’s middle order for a few overs under fading light, walked off Trent Bridge on Friday to a standing ovation as the unlikely heartbeat of a survival bid.
Listed as nightwatchman. Batting like a top-order pro.
His extraordinary 97, carved out over five hours and 15 minutes, kept Leicestershire clinging on in a match Nottinghamshire still fully expect to win – and may have to if they are to defend their County Championship crown.
Nightwatchman turned epic
Nottinghamshire’s 451-8 declared – built around Jack Haynes’ 159 and Liam Patterson-White’s unbeaten 111 – looked every inch a champion’s statement. Leicestershire, scrapping near the foot of Division One, were 23-2 overnight and braced for a long, cold day under grey skies and a hard, newish ball.
Hull, a left-armer with a first-class batting record that barely registered – only three previous double-figure scores in 34 innings, a top of 35 – was sent out late on day two to soak up a few deliveries. By the time he fell three short of a hundred, he had faced 247 balls, hit 10 fours, launched two sixes and rewritten his own story.
He began again on the third morning alongside Rehan Ahmed, with Nottinghamshire sensing a quick kill. The ball was new enough, the air heavy, the bowlers fresh. It felt like a matter of time.
Time, it turned out, belonged to Hull.
He defended with a clarity and calm that stunned the home attack, while Ahmed matched him for discipline. The pair survived a delayed start and a shortened morning session, their third-wicket stand intact as they reached lunch having added 50 in 21.3 overs. Nottinghamshire’s early swagger gave way to a more patient, grinding effort.
Ahmed holds firm, Hull grows
After the interval, Ahmed began to move. He reached a measured half-century from 86 balls, striking six fours, and quietly shifted the pressure back towards the bowlers. For Hull, the landmarks came in different form: he first surpassed the 89 balls he had faced in that unbeaten 35 at Canterbury last summer, then kept going, ball after ball, over after over, until this became the longest innings of his career by a distance.
The stand was worth 83 in 33 overs when Dillon Pennington, the seamer who had taken both wickets the previous evening, finally broke through. Ahmed edged to first slip, gone for 54, and Nottinghamshire at last had a way in.
Hull stayed put.
His defiance hardened into something more ambitious. He slog-swept Liam Patterson-White’s left-arm spin for a second six, a shot that spoke of a player no longer simply surviving. On 44, he was given a life when wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne put down a chance, but Hull barely flinched. He on-drove Freddie McCann’s off-spin for a couple to reach his fifty from 158 balls, raising his bat with a sheepish grin as the entire Leicestershire balcony – players, coaches, staff – rose in loud, prolonged applause.
This was not supposed to be his day. He made it his.
Notts toil as Hull drags Foxes back
Hamza Shaikh joined him and offered sturdy support. Together they added 94 for the fourth wicket, draining Nottinghamshire’s bowlers and fraying the fielders’ patience. The home attack, already having seen much of the first day washed away by rain, knew their best route to victory lay in enforcing the follow-on and striking twice. The longer Hull stayed, the more that plan frayed.
Olly Stone, charging in with the old ball, finally broke the partnership, Jack Haynes clinging on to a sharp chance at third slip to remove Shaikh. Yet still Hull remained, edging closer to what would have been a fairytale hundred.
On 90, Pennington almost had him with a low caught-and-bowled chance that he could only fingertip. The bowler’s frustration was obvious; Hull’s concentration never seemed to waver, though his body must have been screaming.
Eventually, the effort caught up with him. With the second new ball in hand, Pennington went again, pounding away with the same relentlessness that had underpinned his 4-42 from 19 overs. One delivery straightened, Hull, heavy-legged now, played around it, and the appeal was instant. He was gone for 97, three short of a dream but having produced an innings that may yet shape Leicestershire’s season.
He walked off to raucous acclaim. From his own dressing room. From Nottinghamshire supporters who knew they had just watched something remarkable.
Debutant steps up, table tightens
Leicestershire closed on 250-7, still 201 behind and 52 short of avoiding the follow-on. Nottinghamshire’s grip on the contest remains strong, but the day cost them energy and, crucially, a key bowler.
Brett Hutton, so often their workhorse, left the field injured and did not return after tea. That forced a concussion-style substitution and handed a sudden debut to 20-year-old seamer Tom Giles. If Hull had been the story of resistance, Giles became a story of opportunity taken.
The whippy right-armer settled quickly, operating at decent pace and showing no sign of nerves. He saw Nick Kelly dropped at second slip, then answered that frustration with a beauty from around the wicket that clipped off stump as the New Zealander shouldered arms. Later, he trapped Stephen Eskinazi leg before to finish the day with 2-26 from 11 overs – a tidy first entry in the record books.
Nottinghamshire, champions under pressure, have slipped to third as Somerset and Warwickshire both won by an innings elsewhere. Leicestershire, next to bottom, watch their predicament deepen after Surrey’s win over Yorkshire.
Yet this match still hangs on a knife edge of possibility. If Nottinghamshire can rattle through the tail early and enforce the follow-on, they will fancy doing the job twice on a wearing pitch. If Leicestershire can somehow scrap to the follow-on mark, Hull’s near-century might stand not just as a curiosity, but as the innings that turned a relegation battle – and jolted the title race – off its expected course.
