TEAM NEWS
Essex: Dean Elgar, Paul Walter, Tom Westley (C), Charlie Allison, Matt Critchley, Michael Pepper (WK) (subbed - not replaced by George Bell), Simon Harmer, Zaman Akhter, Shane Snater, Sam Cook (withdrawn by England and replaced by Mitch Killeen), Charlie Bennett (injured and replaced by Jamie Porter).
Sussex: Tom Haines (C), Dan Hughes (injured and replaced by Oli Carter), Tom Clark, Charlie Tear, James Coles, Jack Leaning, John Simpson (WK), Ari Karvelas, Jack Carson, Henry Crocombe, Dom Goodman.
MATCH DETAILS
Umpires: Surendiran Shanmugam & Russell Warren
Match Referee: James Whitaker
Scorers: Paul Parkinson & Graham Irwin
Toss: Sussex won the toss and elected to bat
Result: Sussex win by 47 runs
DAY FOUR REACTION: TOM WESTLEY
DAY FOUR HIGHLIGHTS
DAY FOUR REPORT
Sussex took an hour and 20 minutes and 21 overs to wrap up the last three Essex wickets and complete a 47-run victory that lifts them clear of any lingering worries about relegation from Division One of the Rothesay County Championship.
However, they met stern resistance from Essex all-rounder Matt Critchley who batted for three-and-a-half hours in defying Sussex’s efforts. He was eventually last man out when he popped up a catch to slip off James Coles for 96 from 132 balls.
It was the third time this season Critchley, who has 838 Championship runs to his name, has been out in the nineties. His innings included two sixes and eight fours.
Shane Snater had given Essex some hope, hitting two sixes himself in a 45-ball cameo that put on 48 for the ninth wicket, but it was merely brief entertainment for the sizeable crowd who had turned up in Chelmsford.
Essex had started the fourth day under bright, clear skies needing another 132 for an unlikely victory.
With all day available to them, Critchley and Mitch Killeen suggested they might tackle the task in singles. Critchley punctuated the binary scoring with a firm drive through midwicket for four off Ari Karvelas. Killeen also collected boundaries off the South African seamer, angling the ball wide of the slip cordon to third man and then turning through midwicket.
However, Karvelas gained his revenge when he ended Killeen’s 34-ball resistance with a delivery thar reared up and took the edge through to the wicketkeeper. The eighth wicket had put on 31 runs and used up 11 overs.
When Snater cut Coles for four, the target dropped below 100. He followed that with an audacious six off the spinner over cow corner as caution was scrapped in favour of aggression. Critchley caught the mood and swung Jack Carson for a maximum of his own, to be followed four balls later by another from Snater straight down the ground.
However, that forced an immediate switch that brought back Henry Crocombe and with his third ball he had Snater steering the ball high to second slip’s left. Critchley departed soon after.
The game had turned on a crazy 26-ball spell on the second evening when Essex lost seven wickets, tumbling from 171-3 to 177 all out, with Henry Crocombe claiming a second hat-trick in eight days. That meant Essex conceded a 98-run deficit on first-innings scores from which they never recovered.
With the all-rounder Coles hitting 79 in Sussex’s second innings, Essex were set a mammoth 329 to win in a notional 153 overs. It was always going to be a tall order.
In a tight division in which Essex and Sussex were separated by just one point at the start of the match, victory for the visitors carried them to the anonymity of mid-table; defeat for Essex left them concerned for their Division One status. Both have three games left to enhance their positions.
A feature of the four days was the number of replacements used, both for injuries and international call-ups. Essex lost seamer Charlie Bennett to a recurring shin splint problem on the first morning (replaced by Porter); Sam Cook to England (substituted by Killeen, recalled from a loan spell at Gloucestershire); and wicketkeeper Michael Pepper with a damaged thumb (replaced by emergency loan signing George Bell from Lancashire).
Sussex, meanwhile lost Australian opener Dan Hughes to a side strain (Oli Carter taking over as injury substitute) and all-rounder Tom Clark to a knee injury that meant he was unavailable to bowl in the fourth innings
Sussex will also lose Crocombe and Coles to the England white-ball squad for most of the run-in.
DAY THREE REACTION: MATT CRITCHLEY
DAY THREE HIGHLIGHTS
DAY THREE REPORT
James Coles carried Sussex to the brink of victory with an all-round performance that leaves them requiring just three wickets on the final day at Chelmsford while Essex need another 132 runs to pull off an unlikely victory.
The 22-year-old, who bats right-handed and spins the ball with his left, showed just why England had called him into the white-ball squad to play three T20 games against Sri Lanka later this month.
He rediscovered his batting touch with a battling 79 and then continued his sorcery with the ball. His 3-7 in seven overs in Essex’s first innings had been overshadowed by Henry Crocombe’s hat-trick, but he re-emerged into the limelight to finish day three of the Rothesay County Championship match with figures of 3-65. When bad light stopped play with four overs remaining, Matt Critchley had almost single-handedly defied Sussex for more than two hours with an unbeaten 63 from 82 balls.
Coles the batsman had been instrumental in helping Sussex set Essex the daunting target of 329 to win in four-and-a-half sessions. Zaman Akhter had wrapped up the last four Sussex wickets to finish with his best figures for Essex of 4-51. At the other end, Simon Harmer chipped in with 4-96, including three wickets in 15 balls, the first and second separated by a night’s sleep.
Coles then came out and opened the bowling. With his 11th delivery he had Paul Walter snaffled at short leg off a mistimed hoick.
Sussex could afford to set wide open, attacking fields and Dean Elgar and Tom Westley capitalised with a flurry of boundaries. But when the pair had plundered 66 runs inside11 overs, Henry Crocombe revived memories of his first-innings hat-trick by knocking Elgar’s off-stump out of the ground.
Westley tried to reverse-sweep Jack Carson for a third time but only top-edged through to the wicketkeeper. Essex’s top three had departed within 16 overs with 250 runs still needed.
Charlie Allison and Matt Critchley reduced the arrears by 71 in a fourth-wicket stand liberally decorated with boundaries. Allison had been calmly controlled in his hitting even when he launched successive sixes over Carson’s head to long-on. But two balls after the second, he dragged the spinner to a diving midwicket fielder.
Harmer kept Critchley company for 13 overs before edging Ari Karvelas to slip. That brought in Michael Pepper, who was nursing a thumb injury which had prevented him keeping wicket earlier in the day. But he lasted just 13 balls before Coles got a ball to turn sharply and disturb off-stump. Coles had a third wicket when Akhter was trapped in his crease for a pair.
There had been almost as much drama off the field as there was on it earlier in the morning. Essex’s deepening injury crisis, with Pepper joining the list overnight, led Essex to sign George Bell from Lancashire on an emergency loan to the end of the season. He was straight into action behind the stumps but was not eligible to bat.
Back on the field, Harmer struck with the 12th and 14th balls of the day after a delayed start due to rain. John Simpson fell lbw attempting an injudicious sweep and Jack Leaning prodded forward with the ball popping up to short leg.
Carson attempted to disrupt Harmer’s rhythm and three times bounced down the wicket and lofted him down the ground, twice for sixes and once for four. His seventh-wicket stand with Coles put on 63 runs in just 11 overs before he was the first of Akhter’s wickets, lbw playing around a delivery.
Coles reached fifty by hooking Akhter for his seventh boundary, but the bowler hit back when Dom Goodman nudged an inswinger for Bell’s first entry on the scorecard. Ari Karvelas swung his bat lustily as he had in the first innings but departed when a full-bloodied drive was well held at mid-on. And Coles finally departed after a 125-ball stay to a catch on the long-on boundary.
DAY TWO REACTION: JAMIE PORTER
DAY TWO HIGHLIGHTS
DAY TWO REPORT
Henry Crocombe claimed his second hat-trick in eight days, and third five-wicket haul of the season, to leave Essex’s batting in total disarray on an incredible evening of tumbling wickets at Chelmsford.
The 24-year-old seamer, who leaves Sussex for Surrey at the end of the season, had never taken three wickets in successive balls in his life before running through Somerset’s tail at Hove last week. For an encore he helped reduce Essex from 171-3 to 177 all out in the space of 26 balls, his five wickets coming in 14 deliveries without conceding a run. He finished with 5-39.
Essex had been progressing serenely after tea on the second day of the Rothesay County Championship match when Charlie Allison became Crocombe’s first victim after a tidy 56. That wicket exposed the tender underbelly of Essex’s batting and revived fears of a battle against relegation in the run-in to the Division One season.
The collapse gave Sussex an unexpected first-innings lead of 98 after they had taken their score to 275 in the morning thanks largely to the re-engaged Ari Karvelas thrashing six fours in a breezy 38 from 44 balls.
However, they lost Tom Haines, Tom Clark, Charlie Tear and Oli Carter second time round in extending their advantage to 188 as 11 wickets fell after tea.
Karvelas was not finished when he was last man out in Sussex’s first innings and, taking the new-ball, separated the Essex opening pair with an angled delivery into Paul Walter’s stumps. Tom Westley then attempted to despatch Jack Carson over midwicket but was bowled.
With the sun breaking through and a drying wind, the wicket flattened out and batting seemed to be becoming easier than on day one. At that stage there was no hint of what was to come. Indeed, Essex reached three figures for two wickets down in 32 overs, 12 quicker than Sussex, the milestone reached with a reverse sweep for four by Allison off Carson.
Allison contributed 38 of a 58-run stand with Dean Elgar before James Coles found extravagant turn with his third ball to bowl Elgar. Allison’s eighth boundary, a drive off Tom Haines, took him to fifty from 60 balls, but he became bogged down, adding only six more from a further 26 balls before he was lbw playing around one from Crocombe.
Then came the carnage. Almost immediately, Michael Pepper attempted to sweep Coles and went lbw. Then Crocombe took centre stage. Simon Harmer and Zaman Akhter were both trapped lbw to the first two balls of Crocombe’s ninth over before Shane Snater played over the third and lost his leg stump.
Mitch Killeen had been recalled from a loan spell with Gloucestershire to replace Sam Cook, who was called up by England mid-match. Killeen lasted seven balls before he stepped back to try and cut Coles and was bowled. And it wasn’t long before Jamie Porter became the sixth player to lose his stumps in the innings, wicket number five for a rampant Crocombe.
Essex took an hour to wrap up the last three Sussex wickets despite Cook removing Dom Goodman playing down the wrong line to the first ball of the morning. That only brought in Karvelas to help Sussex add 62 runs and claim a batting point.
Karvelas was playing a first-class game for the first time in a year after being released by the club. The South African seamer has since worked as a coach in the Sussex Academy and been re-signed on a short-term contract to cover injuries and England call-ups.
Jack Leaning put on 36 for the ninth wicket with Karvelas before falling to another catch behind off Akhter for a 110-ball 60. Karvelas was finally out when he edged Porter to give Pepper a fifth catch in the innings and Porter his 600th first-class wicket in figures of 4-44.
DAY ONE REACTION: DOUGIE HONDO
DAY ONE HIGHLIGHTS
DAY ONE REPORT
Jamie Porter adopted the mantle of supersub when he came off the proverbial substitutes’ bench to rip through the Sussex batting at Chelmsford.
Porter, rested by Essex for this Rothesay County Championship match, was called into post-lunch action after the pacey Charlie Bennett limped off – and out of the game – with a leg injury sustained during the morning session. The limb was later described as ‘sore’ and was being assessed.
Porter struck in his fifth over on the way to taking his season’s tally to 28 wickets. His 3-32 from a dozen overs blasted a large hole in a plodding Sussex performance. Their batsmen invariably hung around for a while, but without accumulating runs at a rate higher than 2.3 an over, and then got out.
Dan Hughes underlined that with his 45 embracing 107 balls, as Essex’s seam attack of Sam Cook, Shane Snater and Zaman Akhter maintained tight lines mixed with deliveries that either took the edges of bats or just missed them. When bad light cut 10 overs off the day’s allocation, Sussex had reached 213-7 with Jack Leaning unbeaten one short of a half-century
Tom Haines’s decision to bat first on a wicket with plenty of grass left on it had looked debatable at best. The Sussex captain must have rued calling correctly when he was the first of two wickets in three balls for Cook with only seven runs on the board. Both Haines and Tom Clark were caught behind to similar inswinging deliveries, the first representing the 500th dismissal of Cook’s professional career, the second Pepper’s 200th victim.
Under heavy skies, and with the floodlights on within the first hour, play became attritional. The ball barely left the square as the Sussex third-wicket pair of Hughes and Charlie Tear took 19 overs to piece together the first fifty of their partnership.
The stand was worth 72 when Hughes drove loosely at Snater and the ball flew sharply into the slips where Simon Harmer parried it into the air for Paul Walter to complete the catch. Enter Porter, who had his first wicket when Tear dangled his bat and nicked to first slip.
James Coles’ unhappy time at the crease since his double century against Glamorgan in mid-June continued when he hung his bat out to the first ball of Akhter’s latest spell and gave Pepper his 201st scalp.
Porter was back among the wickets soon after tea when he got one to swing late and trap John Simpson lbw. Ten balls later he had Jack Carson edging to first slip.
Dom Goodman showed some attacking intent by twice lofting Matt Critchley to long-on for a six and a four in an over. Yet even with that outburst his eighth-wicket partnership with Leaning took 17 overs to post fifty for their unbroken eighth-wicket stand.
