Lancashire Lightning v Essex Eagles
Vitality Blast
Wednesday 04 September
Emirates Riverside, Chester-le-Street, Durham
Lancashire Lightning Team: Alex Davies, Liam Livingstone, Steven Croft, Glenn Maxwell, Keaton Jennings, Dane Vilas (c & wk) James Faulkner, Josh Bohannon, Saqib Mahmood, Matthew Parkinson, Richard Gleeson
Essex Eagles Team: Cameron Delport, Tom Westley, Adam Wheater (wk), Dan Lawrence, Ryan ten Doeschate, Ravi Bopara, Paul Walter, Simon Harmer (c), Jamie Porter, Aaron Beard, Adam Zampa
Umpires: Martin Saggers & Michael Burns
Toss: Essex Eagles, who elected to bowl
Match Highlights:
Result: Essex Eagles win by 6 wickets
All hail the Essex Eagles who have reached Vitality Blast Finals Day for the first time since 2013 following their victory over Lancashire Lightning by 6 wickets.
Chasing 160 for victory, an unbroken partnership of 60 in exactly 5 overs between Ryan ten Doeschate and Ravi Bopara took the Eagles across the finishing line with four balls to spare.
Ten Doeschate struck 45 and Bopara 39 to add to his 2 for 28 that ensured he carried the man-of-the-match award away for the third successive match.
The Eagles chase was interrupted at one stage by rain and when the action resumed after a 29 minute delay, the threat of further intervention by the weather increased the pressure on the batting side to keep ahead of the DLS score, should the match be curtailed prematurely.
Although Tom Westley was dismissed for 8 just before rain halted play with the Eagles 14 for 1, Cameron Delport went on to hit 44 from 30 balls that included 7 fours to put Essex on course and ahead of the clock.
But Delport was one of two wickets to fall in successive deliveries – Adam Wheater was run out for 13 immediately after Delport’s demise – to leave the Eagles 66 for 3 in the ninth over.
Dan Lawrence added 15 but when he departed, 55 runs were still required with the Eagles have fallen behind the required asking rate.
However, the responsibility of accelerating weighed light on the shoulders of the highly experienced ten Doeschate and Bopara who firstly ensured their side was ahead of the asking rate.
With the realisation that the game would last the full course without further weather interference, the pair set about picking the gaps in the field whilst finding the boundaries with regularity.
Two boundaries in the 17th over that yielded 11 runs left the Eagles requiring 35 from 3 overs and at the end of the next over, during which Bopara cleared the ropes, the target was 23 from 2 overs.
Bopara did enjoy one piece of good fortune on 32 out of 152 when he was dropped by James Faulkner in the deep after striking two successive maximum blows off-spinner Liam Livingstone. Ten Doeschate then struck the same bowler for another 6 as 22 were collected from the over leaving the scores level with one over to go.
It took just 2 further deliveries for Bopara to end the game when he hoisted a ball from leggie Matt Parkinson high into the crowd and start the Eagles celebrations.
On a cold and breezy night in front of a crowd of 1017 at the neutral Emirates Riverside venue, Simon Harmer won the toss and put Lancashire into bat and they made a steady, rather than scintillating start in an innings that only really started to fire in the last six overs.
Alex Davies carried his bat for a 55-ball unbeaten 80 that included 9 boundaries receiving chief support from Dane Vilas as the pair put on 89 in 11 overs for the fourth wicket.
That carried the Lightning from 47 for 3 after the duo started their partnership in the 7th over. Vilas made 41 from 36 deliveries but apart from one maximum blow and one other boundary, the Lancashire skipper was content to push the singles and twos to keep the scoreboard ticking over.
Davies improvised to good effect including successive scoop shots for fours against Aaron Beard in the penultimate over of the innings.
Beard had removed Liam Livingstone in the opening over of the match when the batsman attempted to hoist the ball into the leg side only to miss and find his stumps rearranged.
Beard also breached the defences of James Faulkner in the 19th over but the pick of the Eagles attack was Ravi Bopara who ended with figures of 2 for 28.
The all-rounder sent down 8 ‘dot’ balls from his first 13 deliveries, during which he claimed the scalps of Steven Croft for 8 and Glenn Maxwell who played across the line on 14 and was adjudged leg before.
Then Davies and Vilas took a grip on proceedings. At the halfway stage of the innings, the scoreboard showed 64 for 3 but, after a serene start during which they failed to find the boundary for 5 overs, the pair started to up the tempo.
They collected 12 runs from Bopara’s final over – the 15th – before gathering 17 from the next, bowled by Cameron Delport. That included the only 6 of the innings.
The final four overs amassed 41 runs although Jamie Porter conceded just 6 runs during that sequence whilst also having Vilas caught by Paul Walter at deep backward square leg.
But the Eagles were to find the target within their remit, and they ended an unwanted sequence of nine successive defeats in knockout matches since that win over Notts Outlaws in 2013.
Essex Eagles now go to Finals Day on September 21 as the form side and with the belief that this could be the year when they finally lift the Vitality Blast Trophy after many years of frustration.
