Derbyshire v Essex
LV= Insurance County Championship
Derby, Sunday 11 – Wednesday 14 July
Team News:
Derbyshire: Luis Reece, Tom Wood, Brooke Guest, Leus du Plooy, Matthew Critchley (c), Harry Came, Harvey Hosein (wk), Alex Thomson, Fynn Hudson-Prentice, Michael Cohen, Ben Aitchison.
Essex: Nick Browne, Alastair Cook, Tom Westley (c), Michael Pepper, Paul Walter, Ryan ten Doeschate, Adam Wheater (wk), Simon Harmer, Peter Siddle, Sam Cook, Jamie Porter.
Match Details:
Umpires: James Middlebrook & Neil Mallender
Toss: Derbyshire won and elected to bowl bat
Result: Match Abandoned
Match Abandoned:
The LV= Insurance County Championship fixture between Derbyshire and Essex at The Incora County Ground has been abandoned ahead of the second day’s play.
The decision was made after it was confirmed this morning that an unnamed member of the Derbyshire playing squad tested positive for COVID-19.
The player began self-isolating immediately and further players of the Derbyshire playing squad have been identified as close contacts.
Due to isolation protocols and the impact on Derbyshire’s available playing squad, the umpires have abandoned the match.
The Club have worked closely with Public Health England and both Derbyshire and The ECB with the health and safety of players, staff and officials the first priority.
Confirmation of the awarding of points from the match will be announced in due course.
Day One Match Highlights:
Day One Match Report:
Essex reached the close on Day One of their LV= Insurance County Championship match at Derby on 86-3 with Nick Browne unbeaten on 28 not out and Jimmy Neesham 10 not out.
The visitors trail by 60 runs after Derbyshire were dismissed for 146 as the seamers picked apart the home side, but Essex lost early wickets in their reply.
Before 50 runs were on the board, Essex had lost two wickets. Alastair Cook, who had been dropped at slip on 7 with the score on 13 had reached 30 out of 37 when he was bowled when Reece nipped a ball back into the opener.
Then Tom Westley, on 1, edged an away swinging ball from Hudson-Prentice behind.
Michael Pepper had played soundly until, with his score on 12 and the total on 63, he checked an intended drive off Hudson-Pryce and was caught in the covers.
Meanwhile Nick Browne by virtue of disciplined batting made stealthy progress as he and fellow left-hander Neesham played out the final 10 overs of the day without alarm.
Needing victory and favourable results from elsewhere in the group to have the chance of finishing in the top-two and a place in Division One, Essex made two changes from the side that last played red-ball cricket five weeks ago.
With Peter Siddle having cut short his tenure with Essex after returning to Australia for personal reasons, Jimmy Neesham took his place as the second Overseas. The Kiwi having agreed to extend his T20 contract with the Club by playing in this match and also the Royal London Cup once his brief three-match spell in The Hundred has been concluded.
The other change was Jamie Porter who replaced Paul Walter.
Both Neesham and Porter were amongst the wickets as the visitors attack exploited a pitch offering seam and swing movement and on which only Leus Du Plooy offered any meaningful resistance.
The home side have now failed to reach 150 in eight of their last 12 Championship innings and were soon in trouble having elected to bat, recoiling to 31-3 inside the first 11 overs of the day.
Tom Wood, who had been beaten three times in one over by Porter, had scored 2 of the 8 runs on the board when he lost his off stump when offering no stroke to Sam Cook.
Then Luis Reece and Brooke Guest departed within six balls of each other. Reece paid the price for moving across his stumps facing Shane Snater and was leg before for 16 whilst Guest (13) was beaten between bat and pad by a delivery from Porter that uprooted middle stump.
Before Lunch, Derbyshire who are without a win in red-ball cricket this season, had moved onto 77-4, the latest victim being skipper Matt Critchley for 9 who played across the line to Cook to give the bowler his 34th Championship victim this term.
Du Plooy’s enterprising approach saw him clear the boundary ropes with a scoop shot off Snater whilst his technique saw him regularly step down the pitch to the bowlers.
Derbyshire’s misery continued with the departures of Harry Came, on Derbyshire first-class debut, to Simon Harmer and Harvey Hosein to Porter, both to catches by wicketkeeper Adam Wheater as the home side stuttered to 97-6.
Du Plooy continued to survive and collect runs with his unorthodox approach until having faced 91 balls to reach 43, he once more advanced out of his ground his against Snater only for the Dutch international to strike him on the pads and win the lbw verdict.
Alex Thomson at least showed determined resolution taking 32 balls to get off the mark but he was destined to be the next casualty. Having received a further 21 balls and having moved his score onto 13, Snater collected his third wicket of the innings when knocking back the batsman’s off-stump as the hosts slumped to 128-8.
Neesham polished off the tail with the last two wickets in three balls. Fynn Hudson-Prentice, who it was announced at Lunch is set to return to Sussex next season, played back and was lbw to give the bowler his maiden Essex first-class wicket.
Then Ben Aitchison edged to second slip where Harmer’s safe hands took the catch low down.
It completed a fine effort by the Essex attack to snare the maximum three bowling points with Snater picking up 3/45, Neesham 2/15, Porter 2/31, Cook 2/36 and Harmer 1/13.
