Essex v Surrey
Rothesay County Championship
Ambassador Cruise Line Ground, Chelmsford
Friday 04- Monday 07 April 2025 | 11am start
Team News
Essex: Paul Walter, Charlie Allison, Tom Westley (c), Jordan Cox, Matt Critchley, Michael Pepper (wk), Noah Thain, Simon Harmer, Shane Snater, Sam Cook, Jamie Porter.
Surrey: Rory Burns (c), Dom Sibley, Ollie Pope, Jamie Smith, Ben Foakes (wk), Dan Lawrence, Ryan Patel, Jordan Clark, Matt Fisher, James Taylor, Kemar Roach.
Match Details
Umpires: Russell Warren & Ian Blackwell
Match Referee: James Whitaker
Scorers: Paul Parkinson & Debbie Beesley
Toss: Essex won the toss and chose to bat first
Result: Match Drawn
Scorecard: View here
Day Four Reaction: Tom Westley
Day Four Highlights
Day Four Report
Dom Sibley batted through 77 overs to anchor Surrey’s determined fightback and secure a draw in their opening match as reigning Rothesay County Championship champions.
Beginning the final day still 217 runs behind Essex and staring at an innings defeat, Sibley set about ensuring his side batted out the day to avoid both defeat and embarrassment after a difficult four days in Chelmsford.
The former England opener shared a crucial 101-run partnership with Ben Foakes across 41 overs. Sibley’s stoic resistance lasted four and a half hours and 221 balls before he fell for 66. Foakes, equally resolute, compiled his second half-century of the match before Ryan Patel and Jordan Clark guided Surrey to safety at 219-6, with handshakes exchanged at 5.36pm.
Essex briefly sensed victory when they claimed two wickets in seven balls early in the day, having enforced the follow-on. However, apart from three late wickets, the match drifted toward a draw. In total, Essex used eight bowlers in a bid to force a result, but Surrey proved too stubborn.
Sibley might have fallen to the day’s first ball, edging Jamie Porter just short of slip. He settled into typically dogged form, needing 26 balls to get off the mark with a steer down to third man.
The opening stand moved at a glacial pace – just two runs per over for the first 49 minutes – before Simon Harmer struck, trapping Rory Burns lbw with a fuller ball. One over later, Ollie Pope played a loose shot to a wide delivery from Shane Snater and was caught behind for just one, leaving Surrey wobbling.
Jamie Smith briefly injected momentum, hammering Paul Walter for 23 runs from just eight balls, including a six and four boundaries. But his innings with Sibley ended in a mix-up, which saw both batters stranded at the same end. Despite Michael Pepper fumbling Snater’s throw, Matt Critchley completed the run-out at the non-striker’s end.
With spin at both ends, Essex raced through the overs — the official rate at one point +13 — but Sibley and Foakes remained resolute, often using their pads to smother any turn.
Sibley broke his shackles briefly, striking Critchley for two boundaries in as many balls and later timing a fine cover drive off Harmer. Still, his half-century came only after 181 balls, having resumed his innings the night before. He scored 21 runs from 94 balls before lunch, and just 38 from 103 between lunch and tea.
He finally perished nine balls into the final session, top-edging a wild swing off Noah Thain to the boundary fielder at square leg.
Foakes held firm for 134 balls before Jamie Porter uprooted his middle stump with the third ball of the second new ball. With the scores nearly level, Dan Lawrence was caught in the slips by Jordan Cox — for the second time in the match — before Patel and Clark saw Surrey home.
Day Three Interview: Chris Silverwood
Day Three Highlights
Day Three Report
Ben Foakes defied his former county with a resilient four-hour, 41-minute innings, but he could not prevent Essex from enforcing the follow-on against reigning champions Surrey in the Rothesay County Championship at Chelmsford.
The former England wicketkeeper, and Essex Academy graduate, stood firm while wickets tumbled around him, finishing unbeaten on 92 as Surrey were dismissed for 365 in their first innings—217 runs behind Essex. By the close of day three, Surrey had reached 9 without loss in their second innings, still needing to erase the deficit to make Essex bat again.
It could have been far worse for the visitors. Resuming on 109-1, they suffered a dramatic collapse to 180-6, losing five wickets in a pre-lunch frenzy that saw the heart ripped from the middle order—three wickets falling in just 15 balls.
Simon Harmer led Essex’s charge with a marathon spell, returning 4-83 from 47 overs — 34 of them bowled in the day. It was a welcome return to form for the South African off-spinner, who has endured a below-par 2024 campaign by his high standards, failing to add to his 35 five-wicket hauls and ten 10-wicket match returns until now.
Under clear skies, Ollie Pope lasted only seven deliveries before Jamie Porter clipped his off bail, ending a 103-run partnership with Rory Burns. Jamie Smith briefly threatened with three crisp boundaries off Porter, including a commanding straight drive, but fell to Shane Snater—his off stump sent flying after an ill-judged cover drive.
Foakes arrived at the crease, but Surrey’s troubles deepened quickly. Burns edged Harmer behind for 73, and two balls later Dan Lawrence was undone by extra bounce, edging to slip after just six balls. Ryan Patel then endured a tortured 23-ball stay against Harmer, failing to score and eventually nicking one to the keeper.
Harmer’s accuracy was as valuable as his breakthroughs — Foakes’ cover drive for four was only the second boundary the spinner had conceded in 26 overs.
Momentum briefly shifted with the second new ball, as Surrey rattled off 40 runs in six overs, securing their first of two batting bonus points. Jordan Clark added a counterattacking 45 from 88 balls before falling to Sam Cook.
Foakes reached a gritty half-century with his eighth boundary, an edge just wide of slip off Snater. He shared a 55-run stand for the eighth wicket with Matt Fisher, who was bowled by a Harmer delivery that stayed low.
James Taylor then joined Foakes in a patient 22-over partnership worth 50, until Matt Critchley broke through with a one-over spell from a new end, deceiving Taylor with a googly. Critchley then returned to his original end to trap Kemar Roach lbw, ending the innings and bringing Essex back to the crease with the follow-on enforced.
Day Two Interview: Matt Critchley
Day Two Highlights
Day Two Report
Rory Burns and Ollie Pope dug in for Surrey as they entered survival mode following a chastening day in the Rothesay County Championship clash against Essex at Chelmsford.
Facing an imposing first-innings total of 582-6 declared, Surrey were left with an initial target of 433 just to make Essex bat again. By stumps, they were still 473 runs behind but had steadied the ship at 109-1 from 42 overs under lengthening shadows. Burns led the response with his 75th first-class fifty and closed on 59 not out, while Pope provided solid support with an unbeaten 45. The pair shared a second-wicket stand of 101 after the early loss of Dom Sibley, who was trapped plumb in front by Sam Cook in the fourth over.
Essex’s mammoth total was built on the back of three centuries — and a near miss — with Matt Critchley (145*), Michael Pepper (109), and Jordan Cox (105) all reaching three figures, while Paul Walter narrowly missed out with 95. Critchley and Pepper put on a punishing 216 for the fifth wicket, mixing watchfulness with bursts of aggression to secure four batting points for Essex and grind the champions into the dirt.
Critchley, six runs shy of his career-best, struck 17 fours and a six in his 208-ball innings. He was handed a lifeline on 92 when Ryan Patel failed to hold a chance at square leg, and he made Surrey pay soon after by bringing up his century off Matt Fisher. His swept six off Dan Lawrence was the first maximum of the innings.
Pepper, too, reached his century in style, tucking Taylor to leg for two to complete the 200-run stand before launching Lawrence for six down the ground. However, his aggression cost him as he fell next ball, miscuing a pull to mid-on to give his former teammate Lawrence a long-awaited reward.
Lawrence was Surrey’s main contributor with the ball, claiming 3-169 from 35.2 overs in a marathon spell — almost as many overs as he bowled in a full season during his eight years at Chelmsford before moving to The Kia Oval.
Essex had cruised through nearly five sessions on a batsman-friendly wicket with little trouble. Critchley and Pepper had come together the previous evening following Cox’s dismissal and dominated for 56 overs.
Surrey’s reply started shakily but settled thanks to the determined resistance of Burns and Pope. Pope, dropped early by Critchley at short midwicket, made Essex pay with some fluent stroke-play, including boundaries through the covers off Shane Snater and midwicket off Jamie Porter. Burns edged a streaky boundary over third man but otherwise looked assured, reaching his half-century from 114 balls with seven fours.
By the evening session, Essex had turned to spin from both ends, with Critchley joining Simon Harmer in attempting to restrict Surrey’s scoring. But Burns and Pope stood firm to ensure no further damage on a day otherwise dominated by the hosts.
Day One Interview
Day One Highlights
Day One Report
Jordan Cox made sure his name remained on the England selectors’ radar with the ninth first-class century of his career, and fifth inside a year since joining Essex, as reigning champions Surrey toiled under bright Chelmsford skies.
The 24-year-old Cox was on the cusp of an England debut in New Zealand last autumn before suffering another injury setback. But a swashbuckling 117 from 148 balls in the opening Rothesay County Championship match of the season can only have helped his cause ahead of a year in which England face first Zimbabwe and then India and Australia.
His powerful innings overshadowed an otherwise excellent 95 from makeshift opener Paul Walter. The 30-year-old left-hander, better known for his big-hitting exploits in T20 cricket, fell just short of what would have been only his third red-ball century.
Walter’s stands of 78 with rookie opener Charlie Allison and 100 with Cox, along with Cox’s 92 with Matt Critchley, underpinned an Essex total of 356-4 on the first day against a Surrey pace attack devoid of the likes of Gus Atkinson, Dan Worrall and Tom Lawes. Kemar Roach added some respite with 2-54 from 18 overs.
Essex had won the toss and elected to bat on a benign green-top in front of a bumper home crowd of 2,370.
Walter set the tone by marching to his fifty from 58 balls when he turned James Taylor off his legs for a single. He had dominated the first hour as Charlie Allison marked his first-class debut in look-and-learn mode. The 20-year-old, replacing Dean Elgar at the top of the order while the South African becomes used to the idea of being a father of twins, took 38 balls before hitting his first boundary, a square drive off Matt Fisher that took his score into double figures.
The first-wicket stand ended when Dan Lawrence entered the Surrey attack and with his fourth delivery had Allison lbw for 25, playing down the wrong line, much to the delight of the former Essex man.
Where Walter had been dominant in the opening stand, he became becalmed in the fifties either side of lunch as Tom Westley briefly took centre stage. The Essex captain rolled his wrists to turn Taylor through midwicket for four and later thick-edged Lawrence past a despairing slip.
Westley contributed 40 towards a 48-run second-wicket stand before turning Roach into short midwicket’s hands. Walter added just five to his total in that 16-over partnership but then opened his shoulders and square-cut the first ball after Westley’s departure for his 10th four.
There was greater equality between the third-wicket pair with Walter and Cox trading blows. Some of Cox’s hitting was effortless with no discernible back-lift, most notably his ninth boundary, a drive that scorched past mid-off, and brought up his half-century from 77 balls.
The century partnership was reached with a single from Walter, but two balls later he gave Fisher his first Surrey wicket since the winter move from Yorkshire, when mis-hooking to Ben Foakes diving full-length down legside. Walter’s innings had lasted 172 balls and included 14 fours.
Cox took up the cudgels immediately after tea, hitting Roach to three different parts of the boundary in an over. There was a strange incident just before Cox reached three-figures when he appeared to hit Foakes with his bat as the ball lobbed towards the wicketkeeper. No censure ensued and the century duly arrived with a straight drive off Lawrence for his 18th four.
Cox added three more boundaries before he was beaten for pace by Roach to end a stay of a tad over three hours.
It was just left to Critchley to confirm Essex’s domination as the sun went down with three successive fours off the expensive James Taylor and reach the close on 45 not out.
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