TEAM NEWS
Essex: Dean Elgar, Paul Walter, Tom Westley (C), Charlie Allison, Matt Critchley, Michael Pepper (WK), Simon Harmer, Zaman Akhter, Shane Snater, Charlie Bennett (replaced by Sam Cook), Jamie Porter.
Surrey: Rory Burns (C), Dom Sibley, Adam Thomas, Nikhil Gorantla (replaced by Ollie Pope), Ben Foakes (WK), Mahipal Lomror, Josh Blake, Tom Lawes, Matthew Fisher, Rahul Chahar, Dan Worrall.
MATCH DETAILS
Umpires: Nigel Llong & Mike Burns
Match Referee: Alec Swann
Scorers: Paul Parkinson & Debbie Beesley
Toss: Essex won the toss and elected to bowl
Result: Match Drawn: Essex 12 points, Surrey 11 points
DAY FOUR REACTION: CHRIS SILVERWOOD
DAY FOUR HIGHLIGHTS
DAY FOUR REPORT
Ben Foakes produced the most obdurate hundred of his career at Chelmsford to frustrate the county of his birth and prevent Surrey suffering the ignominy of slipping into the bottom two in the Rothesay County Championship.
The Colchester-born wicketkeeper-batsman walked out at the start of the fourth day with Surrey 51-4, still 45 runs behind Essex’s lead on first innings, and facing a fifth defeat of the season. But Foakes had other ideas and dug in with such grim determination and nous that he was still there nearly five hours later when handshakes were exchanged. He was unbeaten on 120 from 226 balls.
He received good support throughout the final day, in particular with stands of 52 for the seventh wicket with Adam Thomas and 104 for the eighth with Tom Lawes. Essex toiled in vain to make the breakthrough that might have led to their fifth win of the season.
There had been a point just before lunch when Leicestershire’s match at Scarborough was abandoned as a draw and Surrey dropped into the vacated ninth spot in Division One. Foakes made sure they did not stay there for long.
Surrey had made clear their intention to attempt to dig in and bat for as much of the day as possible. It looked a tall order. Foakes hit the first ball of the morning for four, but there was a period soon after where no runs were scored off the bat for 35 balls. Harmer conceded a single from his warm-up delivery, then churned out maiden after maiden before ending Josh Blake’s 70-ball stonewalling by inducing a rare rash shot for a caught behind.
Surrey were still four runs from making Essex bat again when they lost their sixth wicket, Mahipal Lomror nicking Jamie Porter through to the wicketkeeper. Like fellow seamer Sam Cook, Porter was achieving movement and lift off a still lively pitch and Thomas was welcomed with a ball that passed him at eye-level.
It took Surrey 47 overs to cancel Essex’s 96-run first-innings lead and that millstone removed their approach became slightly more expansive. Thomas’s aggression meant he scored at twice the rate of Foakes, who survived a caught-and-bowled chance to Harmer.
But just as Thomas got close to overtaking his senior partner’s score, and with whom he had put on 52 for the seventh wicket, he went to hook a short ball from Zaman Akhter and top-edged into Michael Pepper’s gloves.
When Foakes pulled Akhter through midwicket for his seventh boundary, he had faced 121 balls in reaching fifty. In Lawes he found another ally willing to keep the scoreboard ticking while taking minimal risks. Their 28-over stand ended when Cook beat Lawes for pace with the fourth delivery after tea.
Foakes’s century encompassed 205 balls and was celebrated soon after with a six over midwicket off Harmer, who was also hit on to the pavilion roof by Rahul Chahar.
Surrey have four games in September, starting against Yorkshire at the Oval on Wednesday, to attempt to pull further away from danger and preserve their status in the top division of the premier red-ball competition in the world, which they won four times in the last seven iterations.
DAY THREE REPORT
No play on Day Three.
DAY TWO REACTION: DEAN ELGAR
Dean Elgar kicked off the first leg of his farewell tour with the 78th century of a run-infused career to help Essex into a commanding position in the relegation dogfight against Surrey.
The 39-year-old former South Africa captain announced his retirement on the eve of his 280th first-class appearance and made sure he would not bow out with a whimper when he departs the game at the end of the season. En route to a characteristically pugnacious 191-ball 113, Elgar passed 19,000 career red-ball runs.
However, the Indian leg-spinner Rahul Chahar prevented Essex establishing a lead greater than 96 by taking 6-80, the ninth five-wicket haul of his career, as the last seven wickets fell for 61 runs to leave Essex a slightly disappointing 279 all out. But that disappointment was soon forgotten as Surrey’s top order subsided and they closed on a parlous 51-4, still 45 behind.
By his own standards Elgar has not enjoyed the best of seasons with the bat and went past fifty for only the fourth time, three of them versus Surrey, scoring 212 of his 550 Rothesay County Championship runs against his former county.
But this was a different Elgar. Gone was the twitchy, jumpy left-hander who had been peppered the previous evening by Dan Worrall in fading light. Instead, as the pitch flattened out from its capricious nature on day one, Elgar showed some of the classic touches of his 20-year professional career, even quietening Worrall with a short-arm pull for a low, fizzing six.
Tom Westley also looked more relaxed the morning after the battering of the night before and had put on 47 for the second wicket before he was given out lbw to a Worrall delivery that might just have clipped leg stump.
Charlie Allison was slightly less expansive than his senior partner, but brightened when driving Tom Lawes through the covers for four, then pulling a six over midwicket next ball. But after a partnership that occupied 29 overs and was worth 111 runs, Allison fell to a chest-high catch at second slip for Chahar’s first scalp.
Elgar reached fifty with his seventh four, guiding Matt Fisther to third man, and passed three figures with his 12th, dispatching the equivalent of a spinner’s rank long hop from Chahar through midwicket. In attempting something similar to Surrey’s other spinner Mahipal Lomror, he dollied up a catch to short midwicket after a four-and-a-quarter-hour innings that included 14 fours and that six.
That precipitated the major collapse from 218-3 inside 19 overs either side of tea. Matt Critchley followed six balls after Elgar’s exit, tucked up by Lawes before Chahar took centre stage. Michael Pepper was first to go, nicking to slip. Two balls later Zaman Akhter drove uppishly to wide mid-on. And after the interval Simon Harmer cut to point, Jamie Porter edged behind and Sam Cook was bowled.
Harmer then snapped up two quick wickets in Surrey’s second innings, having Dom Sibley pushing the ball into the hands of short leg and Rory Burns lbw attempting a sweep. To compound Surrey’s woes, Ollie Pope got a leading edge to give Cook a return catch. And to the last ball of the day, Fisher fell in the slip cordon to Snater.
For much of the last decade, Essex and Surrey have challenged at the top end of the world’s premier red-ball competition, winning six titles between them. But both have suffered blips of late and are now more concerned with affairs at the wrong end of the table but knowing that a late surge during the run-in could elevate them in what is a tight league.
DAY ONE REACTION: SAM COOK
Of the pair deemed surplus to requirements from the England squad for the second Test against Pakistan, Cook was soon among the wickets after changing into his Essex kit. He finished with 3-41. Pope, on the other hand, scratched around for 13 from 22 balls before he became one of three scalps for Cook’s fellow seamer Zaman Akhter.
Cook, substituting in for Charlie Bennett from the XI that started a day shorn of 36 overs by heavy rain, extracted swing and bounce off a typical Chelmsford green-tinged wicket. Pope came in for Nikhil Gorantia, who was thereby denied an active part in what would have been his first-class debut.
Put in, Surrey limped to 183 inside 54 over but quickly hit back in the 25 balls possible before bad light ended play prematurely. Paul Walter looked surprised to be given out, caught behind to Dan Worrall, to a ball that swung away late. Dean Elgar and Tom Westley were both hit on the hands by spitting deliveries from Worrall and Matt Fisher as Essex finished on 10-1.
Cook was straight into the attack when he appeared on the pitch an hour after a start delayed until 1.30pm. He needed just 10 deliveries to announce his arrival. Dom Sibley was all at sea as he nicked behind one that swung into him. Cook’s initial six-over burst contained four maidens and just eight runs conceded.
It was a tad unfortunate on the withdrawn Bennett, who had built up a head of steam in the three overs he managed to squeeze in before his departure, with Josh Blake struggling to lay a bat on some lively deliveries.
Surrey had already lost Rory Burns by the time of Cook’s entrance, lbw to one from Jamie Porter that jagged into his back pad, and were soon to lose Blake, caught at second slip aiming a drive through the covers. Ben Foakes lasted three balls before he was pinned lbw for a second wicket in eight deliveries for Shane Snater and a third for Essex in 14.
Pope had to sit padded up for 17 overs before he strode to the wicket as Adam Thomas and Mahipal Lomror put on 52 for the fifth wicket. But to the first ball after tea, Lomror turned Cook to square leg, took one comfortable run and wanted a second that Thomas patently didn’t. A relay of throws from Ahkter to Michael Pepper to the non-striker’s end completed the reckless run-out.
Thomas followed almost immediately, playing loosely at Cook to third slip. Pope played all around a delivery from Akhter that kept low and Fisher played the same bowler airily to mid-on. Rahul Chahar became Cook’s third victim, chipping another catch to Westley, and Tom Lawes was the last of Akhter’s trio after a battling 38 with eight fours.
Between them, Essex and Surrey have won the premier red-ball league in the world six times in the last 10 years. However, they have lost a combined eight matches this season and been dragged into a tense battle to stay in the top division. On this evidence, allied to three defeats in the previous four, Surrey arguably have the most to concern them.
