TEAM NEWS
Essex: Paul Walter, Dean Elgar, Tom Westley (C), Charlie Allison, Matt Critchley, Michael Pepper (WK), Noah Thain, Simon Harmer, Shane Snater, Sam Cook, Jamie Porter.
Surrey: Rory Burns (C), Dom Sibley, Jamie Smith, Ollie Pope, Dan Lawrence, Ben Foakes (WK), Jordan Clark, Tom Lawes, Sean Abbott, Gus Atkinson, Matt Fisher.
MATCH DETAILS
Umpires: Martin Saggers & Jack Shantry
Match Referee: Phil Whitticase
Toss: Surrey won the toss and elected to bowl
Result:
DAY FOUR REACTION
DAY FOUR HIGHLIGHTS
DAY FOUR REPORT
Essex captain Tom Westley hit two sixes and 22 fours in a powerful 136 to lead his side to a comfortably-achieved draw against Surrey at the Kia Oval.
Westley was joined in a second wicket stand of 197 by former South Africa Test opener Dean Elgar, who was unbeaten on 107 as Essex finished a run-filled Rothesay County Championship contest by reaching 302 for two declared in their second innings.
It was the 55th first-class hundred of Elgar’s long and distinguished career, in which the 38-year-old played 86 Tests and also captained his country.
Essex were 239 runs to the good by the end of a match that was watched by more than 15,000, a record Championship attendance at the Oval this century – beating the 14,982 who came to the corresponding fixture last season.
Both sides take 12 points from a game in which only 22 wickets fell across four days while 1,183 runs were scored on a placid, slow surface and under blue skies throughout. The game ended with Ben Foakes taking the second new ball for three overs in tandem with Rory Burns, as Jordan Clark kept wicket.
Starting the final day on 19 without loss, still 44 runs behind, Essex lost their first innings centurion Paul Walter for just three in the second over of the morning.
Walter was adjudged leg-before to Gus Atkinson, although it looked a questionable decision with the England paceman bowling from around the wicket to the giant Essex left-hander.
At 22 for one there might have been a wobble but Westley and Elgar were helped by two missed chances at short mid-wicket – Westley clipping off his pads both times.
The first chance was a difficult one but in the second one, off Matt Fisher, the ball looked to slip clean through Dom Sibley’s hands as he stooped to his right to take the catch.
Essex were 92 for one at lunch and in mid-afternoon Westley, 37, accelerated superbly to his 33rd first-class hundred with an eye-catching assault on both Tom Lawes and Fisher.
Lawes, in his third over, was pulled for six and three balls later thrashed through extra cover for four as Westley went to 83.
He then raced into the 90s by pulling Fisher twice for four and reached three figures by flicking Lawes off his pads wide of mid on for another boundary.
By contrast, Elgar was playing the anchor role to perfection, although he did once advance down the pitch to hit Dan Lawrence’s off spin back over his head for six to go to 64.
In the previous over Elgar had watched Westley play the same lofted straight drive – for the same result – off Lawrence, but the bowler did at least then have Westley caught brilliantly by a diving Sibley at deep mid wicket in the 60th over.
Charlie Allison was 35 not out at the end, adding a further 83 with Elgar who batted for five and a half hours and faced 238 balls.
Surrey have now drawn their first three matches of the season, all high-scoring affairs, but they (and England) will be pleased with the form of Gus Atkinson following a long lay-off with a hamstring complaint.
Atkinson bowled with good pace in his first match since last winter’s Boxing Day Ashes Test against Australia, and in Essex’s second innings finished with figures of 11-3-12-1 while looking threatening throughout despite the sluggish pitch.
DAY THREE REACTION
DAY THREE HIGHLIGHTS
DAY THREE REPORT
Centuries from Dom Sibley and Dan Lawrence helped Surrey gain a first-innings lead of 63 but their Rothesay County Championship against Essex at the Kia Oval looks like ending in a draw.
Surrey were bowled out for 472 in 156.3 overs after Sibley made 101 and Lawrence 125 against his former county.
It left Essex with nine overs to negotiate and they got to stumps unscathed on 19 for 0, trailing by 44 going into the final day.
Surrey’s first home game of the season against Leicestershire saw 1,474 runs scored and only 24 wickets fall and this fixture is following a similar pattern.
The odd ball bounced disconcertingly and the delivery which bowled Ben Foakes from leg-spinner Matt Critchley scuttled along the deck.
But for the most part the bat has dominated with the risk-free stand of 121 in 45 overs between Sibley and Lawrence the highlight from Surrey’s perspective.
Resuming on 192 for 3 they accumulated patiently in the morning session with 79 runs in 30 overs as Surrey set about going past Essex’s score to at least give their bowlers the chance to apply some pressure on day four.
Lawrence went to his fifty by whipping Noah Thain through mid-wicket and brought up the hundred partnership with a lovely cover-driven four off Jamie Porter.
Essex’s attack was willing enough – and Sam Cook deserved more reward for maintaining a probing line and length during three excellent spells – but there was little movement on a well-grassed but slow pitch.
Sibley, 74 overnight, spent nearly 20 minutes on 99 before taking a single to backward point to bring up his 27th first-class hundred and a welcome return to form after his first four innings of the season brought him a modest 88 runs.
But having spent more than six-and-a-half hours and faced 283 balls it was a surprise when he was dismissed as Cook produced a fine delivery which seamed off a good length to find a thin edge.
Lawrence was always the more aggressive of the two, picking up the tempo after lunch by taking two more boundaries off Porter on his way to the 20th first-class hundred of his career.
He had moved on to 125 when a rare misjudgement saw him pick out deep mid-wicket trying to clear the rope for the third time much to Noah Thain's relief after he put down a difficult return catch earlier in the over. Lawrence also hit 15 fours.
Pepper missed a straightforward stumping opportunity off Critchley when Tom Lawes was on 11 and he and Jordan Clark took Surrey past Essex’s 409 in a stand of 67 for the seventh wicket either side of tea before they departed in successive overs.
Lawes drilled a low return catch to Simon Harmer and in the next over Clark was lbw to Critchley, who had switched to the pavilion end.
Harmer wrapped things up with the wickets of Sean Abbott driving to mid-off and Matt Fisher, caught behind down the leg side, to finish with 3-69.
DAY TWO HIGHLIGHTS
DAY TWO REPORT
Dom Sibley posted his first half-century of the campaign as Surrey fought back after losing early wickets in their Rothesay County Championship clash against Essex at the Kia Oval.
Opener Sibley shared a 105 partnership with Ollie Pope, who looked in good touch for 69 – his third consecutive 50-plus score for Surrey after losing his England Test spot during the winter – until presenting Jamie Porter with a routine return catch.
Their efforts enabled the home side, who were looking unsteady at 29 for two in reply to Essex’s 409, to close at 192 for three – still 217 behind – with Sibley batting through the last two sessions for a gritty undefeated 74.
Noah Thain’s career-best 64 had earlier propelled Essex above 400 before off-spinner Dan Lawrence wrapped up the innings with three for 14 – including two wickets in as many balls – against his former county.
Thain, who resumed in the morning on 33, did well to fend away an early snorter from Gus Atkinson that reared up off the surface and generally looked comfortable against the short ball as he and Simon Harmer extended their overnight partnership to 75.
With Thain advancing to his fourth first-class 50, a series of crunching cover drives from Harmer helped to ensure a third batting bonus point was safely stowed away well before the cut-off.
Sean Abbott eventually made the breakthrough as Harmer walked across his stumps to fall lbw for 41, but Shane Snater immediately went on the offensive, pulling the Australian for six and adding two boundaries in his next over.
However, the introduction of Lawrence proved inspirational. The off-spinner’s first delivery was obligingly swept by Thain into the hands of square leg and Sam Cook sliced the next to slip, where Rory Burns leapt to his right for a stunning one-handed catch.
Although Porter swung and missed at the hat-trick ball, Lawrence wrapped up the innings in his next over by having Snater caught at slip, which left Surrey with a brief pre-lunch spell to negotiate.
Burns failed to do so, caught behind nibbling outside off stump at Porter – who beat the bat a number of times along with the equally immaculate Cook as the Essex duo kept their hosts under a tight rein either side of the interval.
Surrey could squeeze only six runs out of the first six overs of the afternoon session and endured another setback as Jamie Smith departed cheaply, edging behind in Snater’s opening burst.
But Pope settled in, withstanding an attritional period before starting to play more freely as he drove Harmer’s first ball to the cover fence and overtook Sibley with another boundary, cut with precision off Thain.
Porter’s miserly figures were slightly dented by a couple of straight drives from Sibley, but it was Pope who continued to look the more fluent of the pair and he progressed to 50 shortly after tea, steering Cook through the covers for four.
Looking nicely poised to convert that half-century into a ton, Pope had just advanced the third-wicket partnership beyond three figures when he fell to a soft dismissal, patting an innocuous Porter delivery back into the bowler’s hands.
Lawrence kept the scoreboard ticking over in the closing stages, shortening the deficit while the shadows lengthened and dispatching Snater for successive fours to reach 38 at stumps.
DAY ONE REACTION
DAY ONE HIGHLIGHTS
DAY ONE REPORT
Paul Walter blunted Surrey’s five-pronged pace attack for almost five hours with a patient 101 as Essex reached 325 for six after being put in on day one at the Kia Oval.
Dean Elgar, the former South African Test opener, also batted with great skill and determination to hit 92 in a first-wicket stand of 183 with Walter which initially rocked Surrey back on their heels.
But Surrey fought back with six wickets in the second half of the day – including four inside 17 overs from the 71st – before Noah Thain, with some nice shots in his 33 not out, saw it to stumps alongside Simon Harmer.
Walter’s dismissal at 248 for three, leg-before to Sean Abbott after facing 184 balls and hitting 14 fours, was quickly followed by the wickets of Charlie Allison for 40, Matt Critchley for eight and Michael Pepper for 17.
Allison was leg-before to Matt Fisher and Critchley held at the second attempt by Rory Burns at first slip off Tom Lawes.
Those three wickets were all taken with the old ball, before Gus Atkinson removed Pepper with the second new ball.
Walter, a late developer as a cricketer, did not score his maiden first-class hundred until he was 27 but now – at 31 – has matured into one of the domestic game’s most consistent top-order players.
His sixth championship century was completed just after tea, with an off-driven four as Surrey belatedly introduced Dan Lawrence’s off spin, and it should not be forgotten that when Walter signed professional terms with Essex in 2016 at the age of 22 he was viewed as a bowling all-rounder who batted in the lower order.
Surrey’s best chance to break the Walter-Elgar partnership did not come until 138 runs were on the board, but Abbott spilled a caught and bowled opportunity when Walter, on 53, mishit one straight back to him.
An Oval crowd which swelled to 5,700 under cloudless blue skies saw Atkinson take the new ball in his first competitive match since last December’s Boxing Day Ashes Test in Melbourne, his initial six-over spell conceding only 18 runs.
Atkinson bowled sharply at times but had to wait until his 18th over for his first wicket, a nip-backer beating Pepper’s defences after the Essex keeper had added a useful 47 with Thain.
For the first 24 overs, Surrey’s seamers operated as a pack from around the wicket to the two left-handed openers but Elgar and Walter were more than equal to the tactic.
Abbott’s drop also meant they had to wait until the 47th over for the breakthrough, which came when Jordan Clark – from over the wicket – had Elgar caught at the wicket by Ben Foakes with one angled across him.
Tom Westley, back after a two-match absence with a damaged finger, struggled for 27 balls over his single run before bottom-edging an attempted pull at Lawes into his stumps.
That was 194 for two but Walter and Allison then added 54 for the third wicket either side of tea to frustrate Surrey further.
Burns’ team were rewarded for their collective resolve, however, during a final session that saw them bowl themselves back into a game that promises to be a hard-fought affair.
