LV= Insurance County Championship
The Cloud County Ground, Chelmsford
Thursday 04 – Sunday 07 May 2023
Essex: Nick Browne, Alastair Cook, Tom Westley (c), Dan Lawrence, Matt Critchley, Michael Pepper (wk), Simon Harmer, Doug Bracewell, Shane Snater, Sam Cook, Jamie Porter.
Surrey: Rory Burns (c), Dom Sibley, Ollie Pope, Will Jacks, Ben Foakes (wk), Cameron Steel, Sean Abbott, Jordan Clark, Gus Atkinson, Kemar Roach.
Match Details:
Umpires: James Middlebrook & Mike Burns
Match Referee: Dean Cosker
Toss: Essex won the toss and elected to bat
Scorecard: View here
Result: Match Drawn, Essex take 10 points from the game
Day Four Highlights:
Day Four Interview: Anthony McGrath
Day Four Report:
Jamie Steel defied Essex for more than two and a half hours to help Surrey salvage a draw against the odds at Chelmsford.
The 22-year-old right-hander dug in after Surrey were reduced to 103-6 with 25 overs still to hold out and retain their unbeaten start to the LV= Insurance County Championship season.
Surrey had been asked to chase down a not inconceivable 273 in 54 overs. However, once Ollie Pope had departed for a 58-ball 47, the reigning champion’s hopes of victory evaporated, and they were happy to still be there at the close on 153-7, Smith unbeaten on 39 from 126 balls.
In setting the target Essex had collapsed alarmingly from 116-2 to 198 all out in 16 overs with Jordan Clark (4-58) and Sean Abbott (3-50) sharing the wickets.
On a day of sunshine after the rain, Surrey’s response got off to the worse possible start when Dom Sibley hung out his bat to Sam Cook’s second ball and Harmer claimed at second slip. It didn’t get much better.
Harmer took an even better catch in the same position to dismiss Rory Burns on the stroke of tea. Burns had played the anchor role, scoring 10 off 43 balls, but flashed at Doug Bracewell and Harmer grabbed at full stretch a ball that looked to have gone past him.
Pope made Bracewell pay with a towering six from an over that went for 15, but when he England batsman had reached 47 from 58 balls, he drove Snater to Nick Browne in the covers and suddenly Surrey needed exactly 200 from 34 overs.
Will Jacks reduced that by six from his third ball but fell soon after when he chipped Snater to short midwicket for nine.
Harmer was not called upon until the 29th over, much later than usual, at which point Sean Abbott’s eyes lit up and he promptly lofted the first ball to wide mid-on. Two balls later Ben Foakes was caught in two minds, withdrew his bat and was lbw.
Smith and Cameron Steel produced a sterling rearguard action for an hour, scoring just 25 runs between them, before Steel was trapped on his crease by Bracewell. Smith then kept Clark out of the firing line as the game ebbed towards its inevitable conclusion.
The day started with Surrey on the front foot as Kemar Roach completed his rain-interrupted over from 23 and a half hours earlier and knocked over Sir Alastair Cook’s off-stump with the second ball.
The introduction of Clark seemed to unsettle Tom Westley, and after narrowly avoiding getting a touch to several outside off-stump, he did finally got a nick to one and was caught behind.
While Westley and Browne had taken a safety-first approach while adding 38 in 14 overs, the incoming Dan Lawrence showed a contrasting approach, advancing down the wicket and depositing his fifth ball out of the ground over long leg.
The third-wicket partnership accelerated the run-rate with 54 runs in 10 overs before Lawrence stepped outside off-stump in an attempt to swat Atkinson over square leg and left all three stumps exposed. At that point Essex were 116-3 and a lead of 190 with 72 overs remaining.
Browne followed almost immediately for 47 when he went to pull Atkinson over extra cover but mistimed and picked out Will Jacks less than halfway back to the boundary.
With Surrey scattering their field to all points on the boundary’s edge in an attempt to stem the runs, Essex’s lower order fell on their own swords.
Michael Pepper’s brief cameo lasted six balls when he took a massive swipe at Abbott and holed out to deep third man. Matt Critchley perished when he pulled Clark over square leg where Jamie Smith ran in to take a tumbling catch.
Doug Bracewell attempted a big heave and skied Abbott into the covers where the bowler took the catch and Harmer handed Abbott a third wicket by picking out long leg. Clark wrapped up the innings with the last two wickets.
Day Three Highlights:
Coming Soon…
Day Three Report:
Essex and Surrey were left frustrated at rain-swept Chelmsford where only 28 balls were possible in two brief spells on day three.
Essex have now lost an accumulated 458 overs to the weather in their first four LV= Insurance County Championship rounds – the equivalent of an entire four-day match.
There were two interruptions inside the first half-an-hour, the second of which proved terminal. Just nine runs were added in the 22 minutes possible, though play was not officially called off until 4.23pm. The forecast, however, is more promising for the final day.
Play had started promptly at 11am as Essex looked to extend their 76-run first-innings lead after dismissing Surrey for 240 at the end of the second day.
Nick Browne turned the first ball from Kemar Roach to third man for three runs. Sir Alastair Cook saw out the next four balls before the players headed back to the pavilion as the first shower struck.
They were back six minutes later for a longer stint during which the Essex openers added a further six runs, largely made up with a typical Cook flick off his hip for four, taking them to 24 without loss, a lead of 98 runs.
However, the first-wicket partnership did not survive without alarm. Roach, who had bowled well without reward in the first innings, beat the outside of Browne’s bat on several occasion. And a mid-pitch mix-up between the pair could have resulted in a run-out with a more accurate throw.
Day Two Highlights:
Day Two Interview: Jamie Porter
Day Two Report:
A rejuvenated Jamie Porter claimed four wickets on a rain-interrupted day to pose the first serious questions about Surrey’s credentials of retaining their LV= Insurance County Championship title.
The Essex seamer took his season’s total to 18 in four Championship games after recording just 19 during the whole of the 2022 campaign. Porter’s four for 51 from 14.5 overs enabled Essex to dismiss Surrey for 240 and gain a 74 first-innings lead. This was extended to 89 by Nick Browne and Sir Alastair Cook in five overs before stumps.
Only the one-time England opener Dom Sibley showed any lengthy occupancy of the crease for the reigning champions, mixing a degree of purpose and elan as he passed 7,000 runs in his 10-year first-class career.
But Sibley’s toing and froing, backwards and forwards from the pavilion between showers, finally ended after 83 balls, 48 runs and three big sixes off Simon Harmer. Sean Abbott chipped in with a lower-order 31, but his colleagues made starts without going on to make larger contributions.
There were hold-ups for four rain showers during the day. Indeed, one stop-start over from Sam Cook was interrupted twice and spanned three-quarters of an hour.
Surrey survived two dropped chances during the first spell of playable weather, Matt Critchley spilling Sibley at leg-slip and Dan Lawrence failing to grasp at third slip to reprieve Rory Burns. Later Abbott was given a life when Harmer floored what would normally be a routine chance at second slip.
Burns added 16 runs to his total before edging Cook to first slip to depart for 27.
Sibley celebrated reaching his personal milestone by greeting the introduction of Harmer with a six over square leg. He followed that by launching the off-spinner for a second out of the ground over midwicket before lunch was heralded by thunder and lightning circling the ground.
Lightning struck metaphorically when play belatedly resumed with Pope and Sibley both lofting Harmer over long-leg for sixes.
Doug Bracewell started a Surrey mini-collapse when got extra lift off the pitch and induced a faint tickle from Sibley.
The New Zealander added a second wicket in his next over when he found some late movement to take the outside of Jamie Smith’s bat.
A third wicket fell inside a six-over spell for the addition of five runs when Porter’s first ball of a new spell and tucked up Pope.
Will Jacks hit 26 of the 39 runs scored for the fifth wicket before he also received a ball that kept low from Shane Snater and was lbw.
Cameron Steel fell into Harmer’s honey trap, pulling a shorter delivery straight into Sam Cook’s hands on the square-leg boundary.
Ben Foakes had hung around for 68 balls while scoring 24 while wickets fell at the other end before he got an inside edge to Cook and was bowled.
Porter wrapped up the innings accounting for Jordan Clark, another victim to one that kept low, then Abbott, caught spectacularly in the covers by Nick Browne, and finally Gus Atkinson pinned on his crease.
Day One Highlights:
Day One Interview: Tom Huggins
Day One Report:
Gus Atkinson claimed career-best bowling figures as he sliced through the Essex batting and wrested the initiative back Surrey’s way on the first day of the LV= Insurance County Championship match at Chelmsford.
The 25-year-old seamer, called in to replace rested leading wicket-taker Dan Worrall for only his 10th first-class appearance, claimed the prized scalp of Sir Alastair Cook among his maiden five-wicket haul to finish with figures of 6-68.
Essex had looked comfortable taking first use of a flat track under light cloud cover when Cook and Nick Browne put on 62 at a run-a-minute for the first wicket, and Tom Westley and Matt Critchley added 114 for the fourth wicket in 34 overs. Cook (51), Westley (62) and Critchley (60) all made hay before a mid-innings collapse in the face of a swinging ball in late afternoon.
The reigning county champions had been toiling before Atkinson and part-time spinner Will Jacks (2-24) combined to reduce Essex from 218-3 to 241-7 inside seven overs with three wickets falling in just 13 deliveries. Only a breezy ninth-wicket stand of 62 between Simon Harmer and Sam Cook enabled Essex to become the first team to take 300 runs off Surrey’s attack this season.
Surrey openers Rory Burns and Dom Sibley survived two lively overs from Jamie Porter and Harmer before the close to reduce Essex’s advantage by one run.
It was not until Atkinson was called upon at the end of an uneventful first hour that Surrey finally made a breakthrough. With his second ball he had Nick Browne fencing at one that flew to third slip.
Cook, taking the more aggressive role in the opening partnership, was particularly strong through the covers which was where the majority of his seven fours came..
However, Cook’s 78-ball innings was not without alarm as he was dropped twice, once on 13 at backward point by Jamie Smith and just after passing his fifty when Ollie Pope failed to hang on at second slip. The latter reprieve did not prove costly as he perished almost immediately when Ben Foakes adjusted well to claim an inside edge low to his right and give Atkinson a second wicket.
Foakes took a second catch behind soon after lunch when Dan Lawrence shuffled awkwardly across his stumps and nicked a delivery from Sean Abbott.
With Westley largely on the back foot metaphorically during a profitable fourth-wicket partnership, Critchley took the initiative, pulling Atkinson for four and then lofting Cameron Steel twice over long leg for sixes.
Westley narrowly beat Critchley to fifty, though his milestone shot was less than memorable as it raced away to the fine-leg boundary from an inside edge. But while Westley required 127 balls to get there, Critchley reached his fourth fifty in six innings this season with a push into the covers from his 85th ball.
But after bringing up the century partnership when he hooked Abbott for four, Critchley chased a wide-ish ball from Jacks and Rory Burns took a stupendous one-handed catch, full-length to his right at slip. It precipitated a rush of wickets punctuated by a six over midwicket by Michael Pepper.
Westley followed when he dragged on against Jordan Clark and lost his off-stump before Pepper edged behind off an injudicious attempt to reverse-sweep Jacks.
Doug Bracewell launched Jacks for six over extra cover before he edged a ball from Atkinson into his stumps. Then Shane Snater played all over another one from Atkinson and was bowled.
It was left to Harmer and Cook to show their batting betters how it should be done. There was much amusement when Roach took evasive action as Cook hooked the ball towards him on the fine-leg boundary, the Barbadian citing a rare sighting of the sun. Cook and Harmer were the final two victims for Atkinson, who found extra bounce to dismiss Cook and then helped Foakes to a fifth catch behind to end Harmer’s resistance.
