Essex v Lancashire
LV= Insurance County Championship
The Cloud County Ground, Chelmsford
Tuesday 20 – Friday 23 September
10:30am start
Inspired by yet another gutsy Shane Snater performance Essex snuck home to complete a narrow victory against Yorkshire, their second one-wicket win this season.
The victory moved Essex to within five points of third-place Lancashire and the winner of next week’s clash will be firm favourites to finish behind the top two.
The fixture, starting on Tuesday 20 September, will be the final time the Men’s First XI appear at The Cloud County Ground this season. Tickets are available online, over the phone or at the gate.
Squad:
Essex welcome Simon Harmer back to the squad after his stint with the South African Test side.
The Opposition:
Lancashire have had a ‘what if’ sort of season after falling just short in both the Vitality Blast and Royal London Cup finals, with the latter coming as recently as Saturday.
Their good form has extended to the LV= Insurance County Championship where they sit in third place after consistently challenging the top spots all season.
Only first place Surrey have fewer than Lancashire’s one defeat in red-ball cricket this season, that defeat coming at the hands of Essex in Manchester. It was a performance which arguably kickstarted Essex’s season after a relatively slow start.
In the spotlight at the start of the season was young batter Josh Bohannon, however, it has been the more experienced heads of Keaton Jennings and Luke Wells who have excelled with the bat this season. Jennings has already reached the 1000-run mark and has done so at an average of over 70, Wells’ 940 runs have come at 58.75 while Bohannon himself has 792 runs at 46.58.
Will Williams began his Lancashire career on a short-term overseas contract but shortly after ended his career in New Zealand to sign for Lancs as a local player. The move has paid off as he has since taken 27 wickets at under 20 apiece, but it’s Tom Bailey who leads the wicket-taking charts with 43 scalps at 25.04.
Last time out:
When the sides last met in red-ball cricket in May, Essex had won one of their opening five Championship fixtures and were searching for momentum.
They found their spark in Manchester with a comprehensive victory that started a run of three successive wins and five in seven since making the trip North.
Batting first Essex posted 391, largely down to a wonderful 120 from Dan Lawrence who reached three figures despite struggling with a hamstring injury. The innings was bolstered by 71 from Nick Browne and 72 from Shane Snater, neither his first nor his last contribution with the bat this season.
Sam Cook and Jamie Porter then delivered four early breakthroughs as Lancashire were reduced to 14-4, which soon became 24-5 when Snater was introduced. Despite a 44 from Phil Salt, Lancashire stumbled to 103 all out, with Cook picking up 4/18 and two wickets each for Porter and Snater.
With the follow-on enforced, Essex’s opening pair of Cook and Porter once again made early inroads to leave Lancashire struggling on 43-3. This time they were joined by Simon Harmer who picked up his first five-wicket haul of the season to finish with 5/89 as Lancashire were bowled all out for 232. The winning margin for Essex was an innings and 56 runs.
How To Watch:
A free live stream of the game will be provided via The Essex Cricket Matchzone, which includes player stats, scorecards and clips throughout the game.
The broadcast can be accessed via the Essex Cricket Matchzone, courtesy of our hosts, Yorkshire – here.
