Lancashire v Essex
Specsavers County Championship
Saturday 9 June – Tuesday 12 June
Emirates Old Trafford
Lancashire team | Keaton Jennings, Haseeb Hameed, Alex Davies, Liam Livingstone (c), Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dane Vilas (wk), Jordan Clark, Joe Mennie, Tom Bailey, Graham Onions, Matthew Parkinson.
Essex team | Alastair Cook, Varun Chopra, Tom Westley, Dan Lawrence, Ravi Bopara, Ryan ten Doeschate (c), Adam Wheater (wk), Simon Harmer, Neil Wagner, Jamie Porter, Sam Cook.
Umpires | Jeremy Lloyds & Steve O’Shaughnessy
Toss | Uncontested, Essex elected to bowl
Result | Essex won by 5 wickets
Match Reaction | Anthony McGrath
Day Three | Match Highlights
Day Three Report:
Essex recorded a third win of the Specsavers County Championship season by beating Lancashire by 5 wickets at Emirates Old Trafford inside three days.
An eventful third day saw Essex roll over the home side for 105, after the Champions had gained a 1 run advantage on first innings. This was before Ravi Bopara with an unbeaten 36 helped overcome a few nervy moments for the visitors on their way to victory.
However, it was Jamie Porter and Simon Harmer who set up the success. Porter took 5 for 30 and Harmer 4 for 34 as Lancashire reeled against the incisive duo.
The hosts began their second innings just before lunch but by the time the interval came, they had lost both openers without a run on the board. Porter removed England opener Keaton Jennings for the second time in the match and his new ball partner Sam Cook accounted for Alex Davies.
Lancashire’s problems continued to mount after lunch as they slumped to 29 for 6 as Porter and Harmer weaved their magic although Sam Cook was forced off the field with suspected sore shins.
Porter had Haseeb Hameed caught behind for 4 and then pinned Liam Livingstone in front of his stumps for 17 before trapping Jordan Clark leg before to boast figures of 4 for 14 in 6.2 overs.
Harmer claimed Dane Vilas thanks to a brilliant catch by Ryan ten Doeschate at short leg when he took a catch off a ferociously struck shot before the bowler added Shivnarine Chanderpaul who walked across his stumps and was leg before to leave Lancashire 41 for 7.
Joe Mennie and Tom Bailey put on 34 in 8 overs before Harmer had the latter caught at short leg for 16 then persuaded Graham Onions to hole out to Alastair Cook in the deep for 13 with the score now 95 for 9.
Joe Mennie meanwhile had looked the most accomplished at the crease for the hosts and had reached 32 from 61 balls when he ran out of partners after Porter bowled Matt Parkinson for 1.
That left Essex a modest target to secure the “double” over Lancashire this season although the visitors suffered a few jitters along the way as Onions caused a few problems to the top-order with a spell of 3 for 18 in 4.2 overs.
Varun Chopra scored 6 before he lost his off stump, Alastair Cook was caught for 9 at third slip with Hameed completing the catch at the second attempt and Tom Westley was caught behind for 14 to leave Essex 39 for 3 inside 10 overs.
Dan Lawrence went 2 runs later, bowled by Mennie, to give the home side a glimmer of hope but a partnership of 52 in 16 overs by Bopara and Ryan ten Doeschate steadied the ship.
Waiting patiently to punish the looser delivery, the partnership had taken Essex to within 12 runs of victory when the skipper was caught in the covers off leg spinner Parkinson for 19.
Successive reverse sweeps by Wheater, who was 11 not out at the end, off Livingstone brought up the 100 before a sweep to the fine leg boundary by Bopara off Parkinson brought the winning runs.
Earlier in the day Essex added 81 runs to the overnight score before losing the remaining four wickets all to Bailey.
There had been a half-hour delay after just 3 overs of play in the morning when a spectator was taken ill with a heart attack and an air ambulance landed on the outfield before taking the spectator to hospital.
Wheater had reached 41 before he was one of three lbw victims for the bowler who claimed Harmer (29) and Porter (0) in the same manner. His other scalp was Neil Wagner who drove freely to score 29 and figured in a last wicket stand worth 42 with Sam Cook that ensured the Champions three batting points to double the tally they had accrued so far this season.
Cook scored 8, a career-best in the Championship, and remaining unbeaten in the competition this summer after five innings.
Day Two | Match Highlights
Day Two Report:
Essex had reached 214 for 6 in reply to Lancashire’s first innings total of 301 all out when bad light and then rain prevented any play after 4:37pm in the Specsavers County Championship match at Emirates Old Trafford.
Alastair Cook contributed his third Championship half-century of the campaign while Ryan ten Doeschate and Tom Westley hit 40’s but it was the loss of four wickets for 10 runs shortly after lunch that put Essex on the backfoot.
It was left to ten Doeschate and Adam Wheater to overcome a difficult period with a partnership worth 81 in 21 overs that carried their side to 211 and a batting point before they were parted.
The Champions had started the afternoon session on 114 for 1 with Cook and Westley looking in charge after the loss of Varun Chopra for 3 but then both fell to paceman Joe Mennie within four overs to leave their side 120 for 3.
Cook was caught behind for 58 and Westley had his of stump knocked back by a yorker when on 41 and the loss of two more wickets left Essex in deep trouble.
Dan Lawrence was pinned in the crease by Graham Onions for 2 and Ravi Bopara (6) edged to second slip when facing Mennie as the batting side capitulated to 130 for 5 having lost four wickets for ten runs in 47 deliveries.
Cook and Westley had survived a testing start to their partnership but emerged to play with confidence and some authority as they composed a stand of 110 with a selection of well-timed drives on both sides of the wicket.
Cook was dropped by Haseeb Hameed at slip on 18 but soon took successive boundaries against Onions whilst Westley also regularly found the ropes.
They raised a century stand in 21 overs before lunch and there was little indication at that stage of the problems that lay ahead for the visitors.
Mennie was given a well-earned break having enjoyed a destructive spell of 7-3-9-3 and ten Doeschate and Wheater set about refashioning the innings. Their fifty stand came up in 77 balls before Wheater, on 25, was dropped by Liam Livingstone off leg-spinner, Matt Parkinson.
However, in the next over, the Essex skipper perished for 43 after a wonderful piece of work by wicket-keeper Dane Vilas who chased after a ball that had been played into the off side by ten Doeschate who set off for a run.
Vilas threw off his glove, picked up the ball and threw down the stumps at the non-strikers end with ten Doeschate inches out short of the crease.
Wheater was joined by Simon Harmer and the pair eased their side through to tea and then the seven deliveries of the final session before rain arrived to curtail play for the day.
Wheater, who has so far batted for a little over an hour and a half facing 67 deliveries is 30 not out and Harmer has a single to his name.
They will resume tomorrow with Essex requiring another 88 for a first innings lead.
At the start of the day, Harmer took the remaining Lancashire wicket with his eighth ball of the morning when Tom Bailey was caught sweeping the ball to Neil Wagner at deep backward square leg for 38 to finish with figures of 3 for 35.
Day One | Match Highlights
Day One Report:
Lancashire reached 297 for 9 at the end of the opening day’s play at Old Trafford in the County Championship after Champions, Essex, had reduced them to 59 for 5 at one stage.
The revival was led by Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Jordan Clark who both scored half-centuries and together put on 131 for the sixth wicket to restore an innings that had been ailing back into life.
Pick of the Essex attack were Sam Cook and Simon Harmer, the latter striking twice in three balls.
After an uncontested toss, the home side lost both openers in the first hour of play and both to Jamie Porter who removed Alex Davies and Keaton Jennings for 2 and 19 respectively before Neil Wagner had Haseeb Hameed caught by Adam Wheater behind the stumps.
Then Cook, accounted for Liam Livingstone for 11 and then had Dane Vilas trapped in the crease, both wickets falling wither side of lunch that had seen Lancashire reach the interval on 59 for 4.
Chanderpual and Clark though dominated the rest of the afternoon session carrying the total onto 158 for 5 at tea. Veteran West Indies Test player, Chanderpaul batted vigilantly in his attempt to address the earlier problems arriving at his half-century from 172 balls that included 8 boundaries.
Clark was altogether more aggressive and positive in his stroke play taking 58 balls to reach his fifty that also included 8 fours.
It was the introduction of Harmer to the attack that sent both back to the Pavilion. Chanderpaul was his first victim when bowled for 58 and the off-spinner than beached the defences of Clark who had scored 79 to leave the home side 193 for 7.
However, Essex were frustrated in the attempts to polish off the innings.
Joe Mennie and Tom Bailey posted 36 for the 8th wicket before Cook brought a ball back in to Mennie (15) to gain the lbw verdict.
The new ball was taken with the score 223 for 7 but Graham Onions hit out with abandon contributing 41 out of a 52 runs stand with Bailey that spanned 6 and a half overs before Wagner had Onions caught by Varun Chopra at first slip when the batsman failed to contend with a sharply lifting delivery that gave Essex their third bowling point.
Matt Parkinson joined Bailey as the home side survived the remaining four overs until the close with Bailey unbeaten on 41 and Parkinson 1 not out.
Cook ended the day with figures of 3 for 65, Harmer 2 for 32, Porter 2 for 62, Wagner 2 for 91 and Ravi Bopara 0 for 33.
