TEAM NEWS
Essex Men: Noah Thain, Luc Benkenstein, Tom Westley (C), Matt Critchley, Grant Roelofsen (WK), Simon Harmer, Ali Zeb, Zaman Akhter, Mackenzie Jones, Mitch Killeen, Charlie Bennett.
Yorkshire Men: Adam Lyth, Will Luxton, Will Bennison, James Wharton, Sam Whiteman, George Hill, Finlay Bean (WK), Dom Bess (C), Jafer Chohan, Ben Coad, Jack White.
MATCH DETAILS
Umpires: David Millns & Ben Peverall
Match Referee: No match referee appointed
Scorers: Paul Parkinson & JT Potter
Toss: Essex Men won the toss and elected to bat
Result: Yorkshire Men won by 7 wickets
MATCH REACTION: MACKENZIE JONES
MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
MATCH REPORT
Yorkshire claimed a convincing but not entirely straightforward seven-wicket win over Essex on a bowler-friendly Chelmsford pitch to secure second spot in Group B and a home quarter-final at York on Friday.
Captain Dom Bess and Ben Coad claimed three for 32 and 3 for 22 respectively with spin and seam to bowl the already-eliminated Eagles out for 151 inside 41 overs. Wicketkeeper Fin Bean also claimed three catches and two stumpings. Matt Critchley top-scored with 45 for the hosts.
Yorkshire, who won for the sixth time in eight matches, then slipped to 15 for two in their chase. But they were steered home largely by a second first-team fifty for England Under 19 Will Bennison, who top-scored with a first-team best 60 off 59 balls.
Yorkshire, who won with more than 18 overs to spare, must now wait for a couple of hours or so to find out their quarter-final opponents.
The White Rose asserted their authority pretty quickly, with Essex slipping to 99 for five in the 26th over. After in-form opener Noah Thain miscued a pull at George Hill’s seam to midwicket, spin prospered.
Bess struck with the first ball of each of his first two overs - Luc Benkenstein bowled, Tom Westley caught behind - before Jafer Chohan bowled Grant Roloefsen, beating the advancing batter down leg with a delivery which turned sharply.
Adam Lyth’s part-time off-spin also had Simon Harmer stumped. Like Bess, he struck in his first over.
Bess struck again before three wickets in two overs for Coad realistically ended any hopes of an Essex revival at 129 for nine in the 35th.
Zaman Akhter, Mackenzie Jones and Mitch Killeen were all caught behind by the impressive Fin Bean, two of them one-handed diving to his right.
George Hill finished things off by bowling Charlie Bennett after some brief resistance, with Critchley, who pulled a couple of sixes, left short of a half-century.
Bean became only the fifth man in Yorkshire history to claim five dismissals behind the stumps in a List A innings. Six is the record held by Harry Duke.
Wickets continued to fall at the start of Yorkshire’s chase, with Scotland seamer Mackenzie Jones trapping Will Luxton lbw and getting Adam Lyth caught at cover.
It was clear batting was tricky, but Bennison and third-wicket partner James Wharton calmly took the sting out of the situation by sharing 85.
Bennison twice pulled Bennett’s seam for six over the short boundary pavilion side of this ground, the latter to reach his fifty off 49 balls. By that time, Yorkshire were back on track at 84 for two in the 16th over.
It was interesting that the off-spin of South African overseas Harmer wasn’t introduced by Essex until the 18th over, by which time the game was all but gone.
He had Bennison caught and bowled with the score on 100 before Wharton took control and finished with 51 not out off 77, hitting the winning boundary over mid-off’s head against Harmer.
