Essex v Yorkshire
Rothesay County Championship
Ambassador Cruise Line Ground, Chelmsford
Friday 09 – Monday 12 May 2025 | 11am start
Team News
Essex: Dean Elgar, Charlie Allison, Tom Westley (c), Robin Das, Matt Critchley, Michael Pepper (wk), Noah Thain, Simon Harmer, Shane Snater, Kasun Rajitha, Jamie Porter.
Yorkshire: Adam Lyth, Finlay Bean, James Wharton, Jonathan Tattersall, Jonny Bairstow (c&wk), George Hill, Dom Bess, Matthew Revis, Ben Coad, Dan Moriarty, Jack White.
Match Details
Umpires: Steve O’Shaughnessy & Jack Shantry
Match Referee: Mike Smith
Toss: Yorkshire won the toss and chose to bat first
Day Three Reaction: Noah Thain
Day Three Highlights:
Day Three Report:
Adam Lyth’s patiently accumulated 185, and Jonny Bairstow’s typically belligerent half-century, set Essex an unlikely 520 to prevent Yorkshire chalking up their second Rothesay County Championship win of the season.
Lyth’s second century of the spring, the 39th of his 18-year first-class career, spanned six hours and 41 minutes of determination and obduracy. The 37-year-old left-hander shared a 153-run second-wicket stand with James Wharton, who added 61 to his unbeaten 63 from the first innings, that underpinned Yorkshire’s 426-6 declared.
The declaration was hastened by Bairstow’s 79 from74 balls that included three sixes and was part of a roller-coaster sixth-wicket stand of 99 with Matty Revis, who contributed 37 off 32 balls. The only consolation for Essex’s dispirited fielders who circled the boundary by the end, were career-best bowling figures of 3-96 for young seamer Noah Thain.
The sense of gathering despair continued when Essex batted. They lost four wickets in the 27 overs that remained in the day in the face of some accurate seam bowling from Jack White, who took 3-17. Essex eked out 64 runs by the close but, with 456 to win, are staring down the barrel of back-to-back defeats when they resume on day four.
Indeed, Essex’s hopes of batting out nearly four sessions became considerably harder when White got a delivery to jump up around Dean Elgar’s adam’s apple as early as the second over and it was fended off into third slip’s hands.
George Hill followed up his six-wicket haul from the first innings by trapping Tom Westley lbw with only his fourth delivery in the second. And next over Charlie Allison drove White uppishly to a tumbling mid-off while Robin Das nudged one to first slip.
With Sam Cook rested in light of his potential England debut against Zimbabwe later this month, the Essex attack had lacked penetration. Lyth took advantage and swept Simon Harmer for his 13th boundary to reach three-figures in just under four hours at the crease, having faced 196 balls. Another sweep off the same bowler brought up the century stand, also from 196 balls.
The partnership might have been parted just before then when Wharton pulled Kasun Rajitha to square leg where Elgar put down the opportunity. Wharton took advantage and reached a 104-ball fifty with a six and a four, both to cow corner, during an over from Matt Critchley.
The partnership was eventually broken when Wharton became Harmer’s first wicket of the game, after 38 overs of toil, as the ball was lofted halfway to the boundary. The loss of his long-time partner did not inconvenience Lyth, who pulled Thain into the pavilion for six and reached 150 from 237 balls.
Jonny Tattersall helped put on 72 for the third wicket before he took a wild swing at Thain, the ball steepling so high that the bowler had time to amble down towards the batsman’s crease to complete the catch.
Lyth’s innings finally ended after 287 balls, 23 fours and that six, when he played a loose, uppish drive to wide mid-off to give Thain his third wicket.
Critchley then claimed his 200th first-class career wicket when Hill chased one outside off-stump and was held at slip.
Bairstow, dropped on five by slip that would have enhanced Thain’s analysis, played an unorthodox reverse sweep-cum-pull that sent a delivery from Critchley for six over point. With the declaration looming, Bairstow and Revis rattled off 29 runs in a 14-ball spree before the captain raced past his second half-century of the season with two sixes in the last over before tea from Shane Snater that also included a ramped four.
Yorkshire batted on for 14 balls after tea before Bairstow holed out to long-on and immediately called a halt to proceedings.
Day Two Reaction: Chris Silverwood
Day Two Highlights:
Day Two Report:
George Hill produced the second-best bowling figures of his burgeoning first-class career as Essex were routed for 123 before Yorkshire extended their lead to 207 runs at Chelmsford.
The 24-year-old seamer added four wickets for 37 runs on the second day to finish with 6-51 – numbers only eclipsed by his 6-26 in the Roses Match at Old Trafford in 2022 – and 19 wickets in all this season in the Rothesay County Championship.
Hill’s Herculean effort, backed up fellow pace bowler Ben Coad’s parsimonious 3-20 from 18 overs, helped Yorkshire establish a first-innings lead of 93, which they increased by 114 for the loss of one wicket in 49 overs.
Experienced opener Adam Lyth led the way in taking the game away from Essex with an unbeaten 166-ball 79, his fifth score of 50 or more in 10 innings so far this spring.
A capricious pitch offered more lift and carry than it had on the first day. Whereas Yorkshire’s first innings had been underpinned by five lbws, Essex’s was littered with catches to either the wicketkeeper or slip cordon. Hill was the main beneficiary.
It was also still a wicket that was difficult to score on: Essex managed two an over compared to Yorkshire’s 2.5 in their first innings and 2.3 so far in the second.
However, the day belonged to Hill as he continued where he left off the night before. He already had Robin Das in trouble during the first 25 minutes of the day before he induced a thick edge that flew o third slip and initiated an inexorable decline.
Matt Critchley followed to a similar dismissal, dangling his bat at Coad and also ending up in Finlay Bean’s hands at third slip.
Tom Westley played a captain’s innings for more than two hours before he became another victim in a tight opening spell from Coad, who found the faintest of edges from an angled bat.
Coad’s second wicket of the morning marked the end of his opening burst of nine overs with five maidens and 10 runs. At that stage, Hill had 1-27 in the session from his nine overs.
From 59-6, Michael Pepper and Noah Thain pieced together a minor fightback with a stand of 46 in 17 overs. Neither, though, looked comfortable when spinner Dan Moriarty was introduced into the attack and when Pepper lunged forward to try and negate any turn, he could only nick behind.
The end was not much longer in coming. Though Thain greeted Hill’s recall to arms with a glorious drive through extra cover for his fourth boundary, an attempt at an ambitious and expansive straighter drive at the fifth delivery proved his downfall.
Shane Snater became Jonny Bairstow’s fifth catch behind the stumps when he went to fend off a fuller ball while Kasun Rajitha lasted just three balls before he walked into another Hill delivery and was lbw.
Adam Lyth and Bean had given Yorkshire what should have been a solid platform in the first innings with an opening stand of 71 before the subsequent collapse to 216 all out. The pair were intent on replicating that partnership, though without any frills or risks.
Lyth passed fifty for the second time in the match – this time from 106 balls – at which point Bean had contributed just 14 to the effort. With another five runs to his tally, equalling his top score in a season of personal struggle, Bean went to pull Thain and got a leading edge. The partnership had been worth 72.
James Wharton, unbeaten with a painstaking 63 in the first innings, threw caution to the wind and launched Critchley on to the press box roof and into the river behind.
Day One Reaction: Matt Critchley
Day One Highlights
Day One Report
James Wharton stood resolute at one end while wickets fell all around him as Yorkshire pressed the self-destruct button after a promising start on a difficult Chelmsford wicket.
The 24-year-old right-hander came in when the first wicket fell at 71 and was still there 55 overs later on 63 not out from 145 balls when Matt Critchley wrapped up Yorkshire’s innings on 216 with his fourth wicket.
The heart had been ripped out of Yorkshire’s innings when four wickets fell in six overs, three of them in nine balls, as a promising 108-1 became 128-5 and continued in the same vein at the same time as Wharton painstakingly racked up his second Rothesay County Championship half-century of the season. Only opener Adam Lyth, with 58 from 148 balls, showed any similar resolve.
Watched by a bumper first-day crowd of 2,612, bolstered by a number of school parties, Essex lost both openers and the nightwatchman in the 16 overs remaining in the evening session while reducing the arrears by 27 runs. Charlie Allison nicked Ben Coad behind, Dean Elgar fished at one from George Hill to be caught at second slip and Jamie Porter was beaten for pace by the same bowler.
Yorkshire had taken one look at the wicket, which had plenty of grass left on it, and decided to bat. It played dead for a session and a half and then suddenly became more responsive for bowlers who had toiled previously.
Yorkshire also had gone into the game without either of their overseas players, the seamers Ben Sears and Jordan Buckingham, plumping instead for an extra batsman in Jonny Tattersall for his first outing of the season. It was a plan that backfired spectacularly.
However, before the mid- and late-afternoon clatter of wickets, the openers had moved along serenely for the initial 23 overs during which Lyth, on 36, had been dropped at wide mid-off by a running Tom Westley. Both Lyth and Finlay Bean had already come down the wicket and lofted Simon Harmer in similar directions for boundaries. The seamers had generally been despatched through the covers.
The chance did not prove costly and, three overs later, Bean looked to drive Shane Snater but played down the wrong line and was lbw.
From scoring without trouble, Yorkshire went into their shell and Lyth and Wharton added just nine runs in the eight overs that preceded lunch. Lyth had been particularly watchful but stirred after lunch and reached his half-century from 120 balls when he lent back and cut Harmer for his ninth four.
Lyth added one more boundary, a leg glance off Kasun Rajitha, before the Sri Lankan pace man trapped him lbw, playing an indeterminate prod.
Bringing in Tattersall did not pay the dividend required as he departed for four to the second ball of a Critchley spell, wafting one that turned into leg slip’s hands.
Jonny Bairstow and Hill departed to successive balls from Porter, the captain lbw on the back foot, and Hill getting an inside edge that carried to the wicketkeeper.
Wharton and Matty Revis knuckled down to steady things for a while before two self-inflicted wounds heralded another slew of wickets. Revis carelessly top-edged Critchley to point where Harmer was steady under the steepling ball. And Dom Bess followed almost immediately, leaving alone a straight delivery from Rajitha and being surprised when it rapped him squarely on the pads.
Wharton took more than three hours over his fifty, late-cutting Rajitha for four to reach the milestone from 138 balls. But he lost three more partners in quick succession when Coad pulled Critchley to short midwicket and Dan Moriarty’s cameo embracing six fours in 24 ended when he was lbw playing around one from Noah Thain. Critchley finished with figures of 4-49 when he had Jack White caught at chest height by slip.
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