James Taylor leads impressive Leicestershire

Leicestershire 303 for 5 v Northamptonshire Scorecard

England prospect James Taylor just missed out on a century as Leicestershire racked up 303 for 5 after being put in to bat by Northamptonshire on the opening day of the season at Grace Road.

The 20-year-old led the home side's recovery after seamer Jack Brooks snapped up two early wickets to give Northants a flying start. Taylor shared half-century partnerships with Matt Boyce and Joshua Cobb to turn the innings around before being bowled by Lee Daggett for 88. Tom New and Wayne White also posted half-centuries and by the close Leicestershire had moved into a commanding position on a pitch offering some help to the seam bowlers.

There were certainly signs of moisture in it when Leicestershire's new captain, former England and Yorkshire star Matthew Hoggard, lost the toss and his opposite number Nicky Boje decided to bowl first. After 10 overs it looked a good decision with Brooks and David Lucas giving Leicestershire's openers a torrid time. Will Jefferson, making his debut after joining Leicestershire from Nottinghamshire, was first to go. With the score on 15 in the fourth over he edged a delivery from Brooks that kept low through to wicketkeeper Paul Harrison.

Brooks struck again 10 runs later, this time finding the edge of Paul Nixon's bat with a delivery that lifted providing David Sales with a catch in the slips. But from that point on the day belonged to Leicestershire as their array of promising youngsters took control.

Taylor, whose record-breaking exploits last season, earned him an England Lions call-up last winter, was once more the pick of the bunch. He again showed why he is catching the eye of the selectors with another exciting knock that included 14 sweetly-timed boundaries. He survived one sharp chance to Vishal Tripathi fielding at short leg to left-arm spinner Boje but after that gave another fine exhibition of controlled batting.

A century looked there for the taking until he inexplicably lost patience and attempting a big drive at a ball from Daggett dragged it back into his stumps. It was a disappointing end to Taylor's innings but Leicestershire were encouraged by excellent efforts from Boyce, Cobb, New and White.

Boyce batted impressively to make 47 before edging a catch to the wicketkeeper while Cobb, after an attractive 27, was bowled off an inside edge by Lucas. New and White then provided a bright and breezy end to the day for the home side, sharing an unbroken stand of 110. New reached his half-century off 81 balls with eight boundaries and White was even faster taking just 59 balls and hitting nine fours. Even more encouraging for the home side was that they had taken three batting points in the opening game compared to last season when it took them four matches to pick up the same number of batting points.