The end of the first week in Barbados is approaching for Anthony McGrath’s men and Friday offered another opportunity for a run out on another gorgeous day on the island.
The match saw Captain Ryan ten Doeschate and Ashar Zaidi feature for the first time with Tom Westley and Sam Cook sitting this match out as play reverted back to a standard 11-man team (Wednesday’s match included a total of 14 players). Matt Coles and Adam Wheater also got a run out by their inclusion in the opposition side, with the latter taking over keeping duties.
A fairly young bowling unit took to the field for Essex with Jack Plom featuring for the second successive match.However, it was Matt Dixon who striked first in the 2nd over of the game as Kofie Hurdle found Chopra in the slips.
Plom did follow up with a wicket for himself – match figures of 10-0-2-56 – by getting his teammate, Adam Wheater out in the 7th over.
Ryan ten Doeschate introduced his spin options from the 10th over and it was Aron Nijjar who bowled Craig St. Hill’s off stump for 27 with 15.1 overs gone. The left-arm spinner striked again 10 overs later as Matt Coles was trapped lbw, leaving Nijjar with figures of 10-1-38-2 for the match.
After a late flurry of runs from the Barbados batsmen, including an impressive 46 off 40 balls by number 10 batsman, Dominic Drakes, the hosts ended 255-8 after their 50 overs.
With the target now set, Essex set about in chasing the Barbados total.
After Nick Browne fell early on for 8, Tendo joined Varun Chopra in the middle, who soon followed Browne back to the Pavilion after finding the man at cover for 24.
It was two of the teams most experienced players in Tendo and James Foster who moved the innings along into the 28th over by putting on the highest partnership of the match with 60.
It was the skipper who reached the only milestone in the match with an 80-ball half century but was out a ball later bringing young Feroze Khushi out to bat. The 18 year old impressed once again with a collection of hooks and drives to reach 29 off 56 balls in a period of the match which both him and James Foster (38) to retire out, giving other batsmen some game time.
Ashar Zaidi brought the innings and match to a close with a typical ‘Zaidi-esque’ innings by frequently finding the square leg and long on boundary to hit 38 off 27 balls. Essex came up 29 runs short but the match was all about practice ahead of next week’s MCC Day/Night fixture at the Kensington Oval, which begins on Tuesday (6:30pm GMT).
