Bears Blast Best: Leicestershire Foxes

The Bears and the Foxes have met 16 times in the Vitality Blast and going into this week's game at Leicester, the Bears lead 10-6 in a series which has produced some magical cricket with bat and ball.

Club journalist Brian Halford recalls the Bears' best against the Foxes with bat and ball, step forward Sam Hain and Fidel Edwards...

Best Innings – 79

Sam Hain (Edgbaston, 2016)

Sam Hain has batted 67 times in T20 cricket. During 15 of those innings, he raised his bat to acknowledge applause for his half-century. That's a fantastic ratio in the helter-skelter world of T20 and, pretty much every time, his fifties have set up a Bears win, as against the Foxes at Edgbaston in 2016.

Hain opened the batting with skipper Ian Bell. Opening pairs don't come much classier than that and Foxes skipper Mark Pettini was soon wondering about the wisdom of his decision to field first.

Against an attack led by Aussie quick specialist Clint McKay, Hain and Bell had 100 on the board in 67 balls. Bell fell for 67 to end the opening stand at 125 but Hain advanced to 79 (52 balls, nine fours, two sixes) before falling to the final ball of the 16th over.

The Bears totalled 186 for four and eased to victory by 28 runs after Rikki Clarke squeezed the life out of the Foxes' reply with a superb spell of 4-0-17-2.

Best Bowling – 4/22

Fidel Edwards (Edgbaston, 2019)

Debuts come in all forms, from dire to dazzling - this was perhaps the most spectacular ever by a bowler for the Bears in the Blast.

West Indian paceman Fidel Edwards arrived on loan from Hampshire and, after the Bears chose to bowl, took wickets with his first, third and sixth deliveries.

His first ball for the Bears rattled the stumps of Neil Dexter. Two balls later, Mark Cosgrove's furniture was always rearranged to send the Hollies Stand into rapture. When Edwards struck again with his sixth ball, Arron Lilley caught by Adam Hose, the roof went up. Edwards' figures after his first over for the Bears: 1-0-2-3.

He returned later to add the wicket of Callum Parkinson, caught by Michael Burgess, and finish with 4-0-22-4.

Job done. The Foxes made a paltry 122 for nine and Ed Pollock (27), Sam Hain (31) and Ashton Agar (41 not out) saw the Bears home at a canter by seven wickets with 31 balls to spare. A cruise of a win set up by a very special over.