Essex Eagles v Sussex Sharks
Royal London One-Day Cup
Tuesday 30 April
The Cloudfm County Ground, Chelmsford
Essex Eagles Team: Varun Chopra, Alastair Cook, Tom Westley, Dan Lawrence, Ravi Bopara, Ryan ten Doeschate (c), Paul Walter, Robbie White (wk), Matt Coles, Peter Siddle, Jamie Porter.
Sussex Sharks Team: Phil Salt, Luke Wright, Stiaan van Zyl, Harry Finch, Laurie Evans, Ben Brown (c & wk), David Wiese, George Garton, Danny Briggs, Abidine Sakande, Mir Hamza.
Toss: Essex Eagles won the toss and elected to bat.
Umpires: Richard Kettleborough & Billy Taylor.
Result: Sussex Sharks won by 1 wicket
Match Report:
Essex were defeated by Sussex Sharks after the visitors claimed a thrilling one wicket victory with one delivery to spare in the Royal London One-Day Cup clash at Chelmsford.
Replying to a total of 283 for 7, Danny Briggs carried the visitors to success by smashing boundaries off Daniel Lawrence’s 4th and 5th deliveries of the final scheduled over.
It had looked like a manageable task for Essex as they picked up four wickets in the space of 15 deliveries, three of them being claimed by Matt Coles to leave Sussex Sharks 94 for 6 in the 18th over.
But a superb 7th wicket partnership of 121 in 24 overs between Laurie Evans and Will Beer turned the tide.
When Evans was removed by Ryan ten Doeschate for 68 to a fine catch by Coles at backward square leg – it brought an end to a responsible innings spanning 70 balls and containing two sixes and six fours.
But the odds still favoured Essex with The Sharks now 215 for 7, and the Eagles looked chances looked even better when Beer departed for 75, his highest List A score, with the total on 245.
Briggs though was to prove the match winner with an unbeaten 37 from 26 balls as he shared in an unbroken last wicket stand of 27 with Mir Hamza whose 9 runs from as many deliveries proved invaluable.
Coles finished with 3 for 72 while Jamie Porter took 2 for 44.
The Eagles innings owed much to Tom Westley and Lawrence who put together a stand of 104 in 19 overs following the dismissals of openers Alastair Cook (36) and Varun Chopra (25) with the total on 73.
Westley struck 61 from 65 deliveries, which included 5 fours, while Lawrence his 54 from 74 balls with one six among his five boundaries as the pair put on 104 in 19 overs.
It was Lawrence’s fourth half-century in this season’s competition but as later events proved it was all in vain.
The county’s next test comes against Kent at Beckenham next Sunday whilst they finish their group matches at Chelmsford two days later against Gloucestershire.
But this defeat signals the end of their hopes of qualifying for the later stages of the competition.
