Cambridgeshire v Essex Eagles
National Counties Showcase Match
Saffron Walden Cricket Club, Sunday 31 July
Team News:
Essex Eagles: Josh Rymell, Feroze Khushi, Tom Westley (c), Robin Das, Will Buttleman (wk), Aaron Beard, Aron Nijjar, Luc Benkenstein, Jamal Richards, Jamie Porter, Charlie Allison.
Cambridgeshire: Ben Seabrook, Jack Potticary (wk), Nikhil Gorantla, Noah Thain, Lee Thomason, Wayne White, Ben Clilverd, Mohammed Danyaal, Mark Smith, Alex Hancock, Josh Porter.
Match Details:
Umpires: Ben Debenham & James Tredwell
Toss: Essex, who elected to bat
Result:
Scorecard: View Here
Match Report:
The build-up to the Royal London Cup included the return of this year’s National Counties fixture with the Essex Eagles taking on Cambridgeshire at an overcast Saffron Walden Cricket Club.
There was a good crowd at the Anglo American Playing Fields to watch the showcase match and it was Essex Eagles who were tasked with setting a score after Tom Westley won the toss and elected to bat.
Feroze Khushi and Josh Rymell opened the batting and they got the innings off to a good start with positive intent to race the score to 34-0 after just four overs.
The Academy pair continued to pile the pressure onto the Cambridgeshire bowlers with a partnership of 68, before Khushi was the first batter to depart. He was out lbw to Ben Clilverd and next in was the skipper, Tom Westley.
Westley brought his vast experience to the partnership and the batters continued to rotate the strike to put on a highest partnership of the innings with 74 off just 79 balls. It was Westley who was next to go after being superbly caught on the long-off boundary by former Derbyshire and Leicestershire player, Wayne White. His impressive 47 off 45 helped to keep the run rate to almost 9 runs an over after 23 overs.
Westley’s partner, Josh Rymell was to go soon after and just one run shy of his half century. This gave Josh Porter his second wicket in the over with the score 143-3.
Three wickets was soon four as new batter, Will Buttleman was caught on the boundary sweeping off his first delivery.
Aaron Beard was next in to join Robin Das and he continued the attack, hitting the first maximum of the match off his fourth ball faced.
Das was the next Eagles player to head back to the Pavilion as he slipped when attempting a second run and was subsequently run out for 10.
Aaron Beard’s innings ended five balls later with 26 off 17 balls. After Nijjar was out 13, Luc Benkenstein and Jamal Richards looked to steady the innings and build a partnership in the back end of the innings with 16 overs remaining. Their 50-run partnership came to end when Benkenstein was caught by Essex Academy and Cambridgeshire player, Noah Thain from the bowling of Mohammed Danyaal (2/56).
From then on it was down to Jamal Richards alongside, Jamie Porter (7) and Charlie Allison (brother of Essex’s Ben Allison) to continue building pushing up the runs total. The Eagles’ finished on 288 after Allison (3) was caught and bowled by Mark Smith, leaving Jamal Richards on 44 not out, which included five 4s and one 6.
In reply, Ben Seabrook and Jack Potticary started the Cambridgeshire run chase. The pair came up against an Essex attack of Porter and Beard and started relatively slow in comparison to their counterparts.
It was Beard who took the first Cambridgeshire wicket in the 8th over as Potticary was caught at cover by Josh Rymell for 6. Essex Academy player, Nikhil Gorantla was the new batter for the hosts and joined Seabrook in the middle. The pair struck 10 runs in the 10th over before Gorantla was out to Richards for 11.
Seabrook continued to build a fine innings, hitting Richards for 16 runs in the 18th, which included a 6 and two 4s. After Thain was Aron Nijjar’s first victim of the match, Seabrook’s time in the middle came to an end at the 30.3 over mark on 79 off 92 balls.
This was Westley’s first wicket of the afternoon with the score on 147-4 and he followed it up with the wicket of Lee Thomason two overs later.
Thereon, it was was Wayne White who looked to keep the chase alive with a knock of 45 off 43 deliveries. However, with 4.4 over remaining, Jamie Porter delivered the winning blow for the Eagles taking the wicket off Alex Hancock.
Jamal Richards was the pick of the Essex bowlers with figures of 3/55, whilst Aron Nijjar caused the Cambridgeshire batters problems all innings, taking 2/33 off his 10-over allocation. Westley ended the match with figures of 2/26, 1/32 for Beard and 1/31 for Porter.
