Essex v Worcestershire
Rothesay County Championship
Ambassador Cruise Line Ground, Chelmsford
Friday 18 – Monday 21 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, Kasun Rajitha, Jamie Porter.
Worcestershire: Jake Libby, Gareth Roderick (wk), Kashif Ali, Rob Jones, Adam Hose, Brett D’Oliveira (c), Matthew Waite, Ethan Brookes, Tom Taylor, Ben Allison, Jacob Duffy.
Match Details
Umpires: Steve O’Shaughnessy & Rob White
Match Referee: Steve Davis
Toss: Worcestershire won the toss and chose to bowl first
Scorecard: View here
Day One Interview
Day One Highlights
Day One Report
Jacob Duffy and Matthew Waite took advantage of a seam-friendly pitch to skittle Essex for 179 in the Rothesay County Championship at Chelmsford.
New Zealand’s Duffy led the way with a fine display of fast, accurate bowling that was rewarded with figures of 4-39 while Waite took out three middle-order wickets as Essex were dismissed inside 59 overs.
Only Simon Harmer’s innings lasted more than 47 balls and 68 minutes – his obdurate 77-ball 28 spanned nearly two hours – as no one got to grips with a hybrid pitch that had plenty of grass on it and provided extra lift, carry and lateral movement. The toss was crucial and Brett D’Oliveira won it for Worcestershire.
Not that the visitors fared much better when it was their turn to bat. Though Essex were without England pace prospect Sam Cook on instruction from the ECB, they still managed to reduce Worcestershire to 22-4 before they revived to 98-4 when bad light ended play with nine overs remaining.
A knee injury to Michael Pepper, that necessitated a runner when he came back to bat, meant Jordan Cox had to take the wicketkeeping gloves earlier in the campaign that he had planned.
Essex never recovered from a poor start. Paul Walter was the first to go when Duffy left just his leg-stump standing as he played across the line. Duffy had a second wicket in eight balls. Charlie Allison had already three times driven Tom Taylor exquisitely straight before playing around one to fall lbw.
Cox might have gone in his first over from Tom Taylor, an involuntary edge sneaking through the slips for four. Unfazed, Cox then came down the wicket and lofted Ben Allison over his head for six.
Tom Westley had earlier hit Taylor out of the attack with three boundaries in an over, but the bowler gained revenge when he returned to have the Essex captain caught behind after a 60-run partnership with Cox. Cox followed 10 balls later, though, beaten by one from Duffy that nipped off the seam and took a leading edge through to the wicketkeeper.
Pepper was injured before lunch, but came out to continue his innings after the break but lasted one ball before rearing up in agony and immediately retiring hurt.
It was 106-5 soon after that when Matt Critchley sauntered down the wicket to Waite and could only deflect the delivery that followed him. Waite collected a second when he had Noah Thain trapped by a straight one that hit his back pad.
Shane Snater slammed Waite for 14 from an over, including a straight six. He was determined to repeat the feat but perished with a wild top-edge against Duffy to be caught at deep third man.
Pepper returned with Allison as his runner, but his dismissal initiated the beginning of the end of Essex’s innings as the last three wickets fell for two runs. Pepper was trapped lbw before Allison came to the party with two wickets in three balls. Harmer finally departed to a fourth catch at the wicket by Roderick, and then Porter lost his off-stump to his former team-mate.
The wickets continued to clatter when Worcestershire batted. Jake Libby pushed a delivery from Snater into Critchley’s right hand at third slip and Roderick fell to the same combination, though the catch was taken low down this time.
Essex’s debutant overseas bowler Kasun Rajitha made an instant impact by knocking Roderick’s bat out of his hand with his second ball, The Sri Lankan had his first wicket soon after when Cox snaffled Rob Jones behind the stumps.
Porter then had Kashif Ali taken by Thain diving forward at fourth slip to make it 22-4 before Adam Hose and D’Oliveira pieced together the biggest partnership of the match so far with an unbeaten 76 added for the fifth wicket.
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