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Essex Eagles | Varun Chopra (6), Adam Wheater (31), Dan Lawrence (28), Ravi Bopara (25), Ryan ten Doeschate (27)*, Ashar Zaidi (99), James Foster (7), Paul Walter (22), Simon Harmer (11), Mohammad Amir (5), Matt Dixon (30).

Middlesex | Paul Stirling (39), John Simpson (20), Stevie Eskinazi (28), Eoin Morgan (16), James Franklin (74), George Scott (17), Ryan Higgins (11), Tim Southee (38), Nathan Sowter (72), Tom Helm (7), Steven Finn (9).

Umpires | Steve O’shaughnessy & Billy Taylor

Toss | Middlesex won the toss and chose to bowl

Interview | Tendo talks!

Close of Play Report

Ravi Bopara and Mohammad Amir bowled typically miserly four-over spells, conceding just 24 and 25 runs respectively, to keep alive Essex’s outside chance of qualifying for the knockout stages of NatWest T20 Blast.

Essex’s fourth win of the season moved them off the foot of the south group, but they require wins from their final three games to stand any hope of a quarter-final spot.

Bopara and Amir, who both claimed two wickets each, were well supported in the parsimonious stakes by Dan Lawrence and Simon Harmer as Middlesex were pulled up nine runs short in their pursuit of 173.

Nathan Sowter, the 24-year-old Australian leg-spinner, blasted a hole in the middle of the Essex innings with career-best T20 figures of four for 23, but Adam Wheater’s 21-ball 43 laid the foundations for the home win.

Essex, put in, raced past 50 in the fifth over when Wheater drove Tim Southee straight for his fourth boundary. Varun Chopra matched his opening partner almost run-for-one as they put on 56 for the first wicket, scooping Tim Barber over fine leg for six. But he fell when chipping at catchable height to James Franklin at midwicket.

Wheater maintained his sharp upturn in form with the ball, and lofted Ryan Higgins for two sixes in an over to long leg. But he departed when he tried to chop Sowter’s first ball to third man and was bowled.

Dan Lawrence came down the wicket and smashed Barber past the bowler for four, but tried to lift Sowter over long leg for six and was comfortably caught by Southee. Ashar Zaidi received a reprieve first ball when he pulled Sowter to midwicket where Tim Helm dropped the chance. It was not too costly as Zaidi attempted the same against Higgins and was caught by a tumbling Stevie Eskinazi.

Essex’s hundred came up in a 10-ball 11th over from Barber courtesy of the third of four successive wides. When he switched to around the wicket, Ravi Bopara cut a straighter ball for four. Bopara followed up by thumping Paul Stirling for a six over the press-box stand and into the river behind.

But after contributing 27 from 25 balls, Bopara was caught on the long-leg boundary by Franklin. Sowter added a fourth wicket in the same over when he had James Foster lbw first ball attempting to sweep.

Ryan ten Doeschate cut Higgins for four so late off his stumps he looked in danger of being bowled, and a flick of the wrists sent another fine to the boundary off Helm. But a running catch on the cover boundary by George Scott accounted for the Essex captain on 25. Harmer followed giving Southee another catch at long leg and Mohammad Amir was run out from the last ball, leaving Paul Walter a pugnacious 20 not out.

Middlesex lost Paul Stirling in the second over of their reply when the Irishman holed out in deep midwicket where substitute fielder Callum Taylor claimed the steepler. But that brought in Eskinazi to join John Simpson and the pair hit five boundaries off seven balls against Matt Dixon and Paul Walter. Eskanzi clouted Dixon for six over cow corner and Simpson did likewise to Walter, pulling him to the midwicket boundary.

But the return of Mohammad Amir ended the second-wicket fun when Eskinazi chopped him straight to Taylor at point for a seven-ball 14. Simpson didn’t stay much longer, misjudging Lawrence’s first ball and going lbw for 30 from 19 balls. Lawrence’s first over, the last in the powerplay went for just two and stalled Middlesex’s early charge.

Bopara kept the brakes on, conceding four from each of his first two overs as Middlesex reached the halfway point on 79 for three. Taylor should have taken a third catch to send back Morgan on 21, but moving backwards at square leg he failed to read the ball’s trajectory.

Morgan’s fourth-wicket partnership with George Scott went past fifty in seven overs, but ended when it had got to 56. Morgan miscued sufficiently high to wide mid-on that Bopara had time to race back and take a memorable caught and bowled. Morgan had scored another 16 following his let-off to finish with 37 from 26 balls.

Lawrence’s impressive figures were ruined when Scott clubbed his final ball for six over long off to leave the off-spinner with one for 29 from his four overs. But Amir came back and conceded just two runs from third to leave Middlesex needing 10 an over from the last five. It rose to 47 needed from the last four overs.

When James Franklin was caught at deep midwicket by Harmer off Bopara, Middlesex were 127 for five and in danger of imploding. Overs 15, 16 and 17, bowled by Amir, Harmer and Bopara, went for a combined 10 runs as the run-rate reached 14 an over.

Zaidi’s first ball of the 18th over arrowed past Scott’s ungainly swish and he was bowled for 36-ball 34. A faster ball from Amir accounted for Southee to leave Middlesex needing 26 from the final over with three wickets left. Higgins hit a six off Walter’s penultimate ball, but with 12 required from the last ball the result was not in doubt.

Interval Report

Needing victory to keep alive their slender hopes of reaching the knockout stages of the NatWest T20 Blast competition, Essex were restricted to a total of 172 for 9 in their battle against Middlesex at The Cloudfm Ground.

It represented a disappointing score after they had got off to a brisk start.

Adam Wheater and Varun Chopra raised the 50 in the 5^th over while the 100 was brought up in the 11^th over for the loss of three wickets. But the Eagles lost their way in their attempts to force the pace.

Spinner Nathan Sowter was responsible for them stumbling to 139 for 6 as he picked up 4 for 23, his best figures in the competition.

Among his victims was Wheater who was bowled for 43 that contained 2 sixes and 4 fours from 21 deliveries.

He also had Ravi Bopara caught in the deep for 27 and James Foster for a first ball duck in the same over.

Dan Lawrence was Sowter’s other success but skipper Ryan ten Doeschate contributed 25 to ensure some respectability as he and Paul Walter carried the total to 161 before the Essex captain was caught at deep cover.

Walter finished unbeaten on 20 as the Eagles were left needing their bowlers to rise to the occasion if they were to get the victory they so desperately needed.

Essex Cricket will be supporting the Rainbow Laces campaign during our NatWest T20 Blast match against Middlesex to celebrate lesbian, gay, bi and trans (LGBT) players and fans at every level of cricket and sport as a whole.

The ECB has joined forces with LGBT equity charity Stonewall to bring Rainbow Laces to the NatWest T20 Blast and Kia Super League this coming weekend. The campaign will see thousands of players and fans lace up their Rainbow Laces on 10-13 August, to show that cricket is everyone’s game and that LGBT people are welcome and included at every level.

Supporters will see rainbow flags and stump stickers at The Cloudfm County Ground during play against Middlesex.

We know that most fans welcome and accept LGBT people in sport. However, we can’t let a minority of fans spoil the game and make LGBT fans feel unwelcome watching or playing cricket.

By supporting Rainbow Laces we are stepping up to show that offensive chants, language and behaviour have no place in our game.

Join us and Stonewall to make sport everyone’s game.

For further information on the campaign, please visit – www.stonewall.org.uk/sport

Essex batsmen Alastair Cook and Tom Westley have been named in the England squad for the Test series against West Indies that begins next week.

Westley retains his place after making his debut at The Oval and impressing in the series against South Africa.

Surrey’s top order batsman Mark Stoneman replaces Keaton Jennings and is set to earn his first cap in the inaugural day/night Test to be played in this country.

The former Durham opener has been in consistent form this season scoring 1,000 runs in first-class cricket, including a top score of 197 and averaging 58.82 with three centuries.

Hampshire leg-spinner Mason Crane is included for the first time after impressing this season in the County Championship and earning his first cap in the England IT20 squad back in June.

Warwickshire all-rounder Chris Woakes returns to the squad in place of Middlesex’s Steven Finn. Woakes, who has fully recovered from a side strain sustained during the ICC Champions Trophy in June.

James Whitaker, the National Selector, said: “After an excellent series victory over South Africa, our first against them on home soil since 1998, we now look forward to building on our success against the West Indies.

“Selectors would like to offer their congratulations to Mark Stoneman and Mason Crane who thoroughly deserve their opportunity in the squad.

“Keaton Jennings will return to Durham and will look to recapture the form that earned him selection in the first place. I am sure he will find his confidence and look to score runs in the remaining matches of this season.

“Chris Woakes has proved his fitness and returns to the squad having missed most of the summer through injury. He was impressive in his return game at Lord’s this week and if selected in the final line-up, he will be relishing the prospect of playing on his home ground.

“On behalf of the selectors, I would like to wish Joe Root, Trevor Bayliss and all the squad the very best for what will be an exciting series against West Indies.”

England National Cricket Selectors have named the following 13-man squad for the first Investec Test match against West Indies starting at Edgbaston on Thursday August 17.

Joe Root (Yorkshire, captain)
Moeen Ali (Worcestershire)
James Anderson (Lancashire)
Jonathan Bairstow (Yorkshire, wk)
Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire)
Alastair Cook (Essex)
Mason Crane (Hampshire)
Dawid Malan (Middlesex)
Toby Roland-Jones (Middlesex)
Ben Stokes (Durham)
Mark Stoneman (Surrey)
Tom Westley (Essex)
Chris Woakes (Warwickshire) 

Investec Test Series Fixtures:

First Investec Test Match, England v West Indies, August 17-21, Edgbaston, Birmingham

Second Investec Test Match, England v West Indies, August 25-29, Headingley, Leeds

Third Investec Test Match, England v West Indies, September 7-11, Lord’s, London

Adam Wheater has endured a difficult first year back at Essex, but there are signs of a return to form in time for the business end of the season.

Wheater has taken the opportunity provided by Tom Westley’s absence on Test duty to lay claim to a regular place in the Essex middle-order.

The 27-year-old hammered a quickfire 50 in the NatWest T20 Blast win at Hampshire last week, and followed up with 34 in the two-day Specsavers County Championship victory against Yorkshire at Scarborough. His fifth-wicket partnership of 58 with captain Ryan ten Doeschate was the highest in a low-scoring match, taking Essex beyond Yorkshire’s first-innings total and towards a 41-point lead in the table.

“My form is slightly better, yes,” he says. “It’s always tough when you’re out of form to put a finger on it and work out where things have been going wrong.

“It has been frustrating, but that’s cricket and you’ve got to stay level-headed and crack on. Hopefully round the corner there are some runs. You just work hard and hope it turns around for you.

“In this sport in particular you’ve got to take it with a pinch of salt; it is what it is. The only disappointing thing is not performing for the team. It’s about winning games for Essex, regardless of personal aspirations, personal goals; it’s about getting over the line for the team.”

Wheater, who has an unenviable record of five ducks, and four other single-figure scores in 18 innings across the three formats this season, and just three knocks above fifty, might be forgiven for longing for the season to end. “Not at all,” he says. “Essex haven’t won Division One for something like 25 years, and to play a part is fantastic. I’m fully embracing it and enjoying it because it’s a very rare position to be in.”

Wheater’s return home after four summers at Hampshire, looked as if it would spell the end of James Foster’s illustrious career behind the stumps. But things haven’t gone as planned for his would-be replacement.

The younger man says: “I was fortunate to have that opportunity at the start of the season and I didn’t perform well enough to deserve keeping the gloves. It was the right decision [to recall Foster] and it was something I agreed with. So there is no frustration or resentment here, it’s just a case of me sticking at it and seeing where it goes.

“It’s not as if me and Fozz are the same age. Next year, two years’ time, three years’ time, there will be opportunities. It’s not as if I need to force anything now by any means. Fozz is a class act; it is what it is. I knew when I came back to Essex this might be the situation so it’s not unexpected.”

Essex’s form in the T20 has been inconsistent and they are bottom of the table going into tonight’s fixture under the Chelmsford lights against Middlesex. Yet they still have an outside chance of progressing to the knockout stages.

Wheater said: “It seems as if everyone has beaten everyone. No one has run away with it. I think that is just the strength of the south group. There are no easy teams and no easy wins.

“It’s great we’re still in it otherwise these next four games would be a real slog to get through. So it’s nice there is a consequence – every game is a quarter-final really. To squeeze through would be a great result.”

Essex Eagles meet Middlesex in the NatWest T20 Blast at The Cloudfm County Ground on Friday night.

Although the Eagles start the match at the foot of the South Group with four matches to play, they still hold a realistic chance of reaching the quarter final stage.

In the previous match in the competition, Essex beat Hampshire by 4 wickets at the Ageas Bowl after opener and former Hampshire batsman Adam Wheater scored 50 to pave the way for only the third success for the Eagles in this year’s shortest form of the game.

Recently promoted to open the innings in T20 cricket, the 27 year-old played with gusto to lay the foundations for the win.

“With what we have in the middle order it would be criminal for me to go out there and not try and give it a whack because it could be wasted,” he explained. “Sometimes it comes off and sometimes it doesn’t but to go on from the little starts to a bigger start was pleasing.”

He admitted it was a vital win. “It was a good win and a needed win because potentially, if we hadn’t won this, we could have been out if it,” he acknowledged

“It is a tight group, we are still bottom but we are not far off third. If games go our way we will see where we are.”

Middlesex, who sit just one place above the Eagles in the South Group, have a similar record to their hosts with 3 wins and 8 points from 10 matches and they are without a victory in six attempts away from home ahead of this encounter.

Essex will be seeking back-to-back T20 wins on home turf for the first time in over a year.

Head Coach Chris Silverwood has named a 13-man squad and has stressed the importance of the match. “It’s a must win game for us” he said. “But so are the other three matches we have left if we are going to have any chance of qualification for the knockout stage.

“We have had some excellent individual performances and some of the younger players are showing how much they are benefiting from playing this format of cricket. We had a good win against Hampshire in our last game and that showed we are capable of producing some good T20 cricket.

“As ever, we will go out and try and produce our best cricket which we have done at times in this competition and see where it takes us.”

Essex squad:
Ryan ten Doeschate (27) Captain
James Foster (7) WK
Mohammad Amir (5)
Ravi Bopara (25)
Varun Chopra (6)
Matt Dixon (30)
Simon Harmer (11)
Dan Lawrence (28)
Jamie Porter (44)
Callum Taylor (67)
Paul Walter (22)
Adam Wheater (31)
Ashar Zaidi (99)

Essex County Cricket Club were deeply saddened to learn of the passing of President and former and Essex and England cricketer, Doug Insole CBE, on Sunday.

Born in Clapton, East London on 18 April 1926, to John and Margaret Insole. Doug attended Selwyn Avenue Primary School, Highams Park and found a lifelong passion for music and sport.

On leaving school, he was posted to an outstation of Bletchley Park. He spent the rest of the war working taking down intercepted enemy messages, at twenty words a minute. These were then whisked to Bletchley by despatch rider for decoding.

After serving with the army for two years from 1944 he began studying history at Cambridge. He was a soccer blue in 1946-48 and a cricket blue in 1947-49 for Cambridge University.

From 1947 he played first-class cricket as a middle-order batsman both for the university and, once term-time had ended, for Essex.

Doug appeared in 450 first class matches scoring 25,241 runs at 37.61, with 54 centuries and a career best of 219 not out. He was a fine slip fielder, occasional wicket keeper and took 138 wickets. After his best season in 1955, when he scored 2427 runs at an average of 42, with nine centuries, he was named one of the five Wisden cricketers of the year.

Doug was a highly respected and distinguished cricketer and administrator and followed his playing career by becoming a Test selector while playing with Essex in 1960, remaining in the job until 1979 and serving as chairman of selectors from 1965 until 1968.

He was chairman of the TCCB from 1975 until 1978, and managed England during their 1978-79 and 1982-83 Ashes tours to Australia. At Essex, he was chairman from 1976 until 1978 and president from 1994 until his death.

Essex Cricket Chairman, John Faragher, reflected on Doug’s contributions and said: “The passing of our President, Mr Douglas J Insole CBE, was indeed a sad day for Essex Cricket. It is hard to imagine the Club without Doug as President, such was his presence and influence at the ground.

“He leaves a legacy with shoes impossible to fill. He was a remarkable man who did so much for English cricket. He lived life to the full until the very end and was a popular figure in Committee rooms around the country.

“His passion for Essex Cricket was immense. He was proud to be our President and even more so this year as we moved to the top of Division One, playing the type of cricket that has long been associated with Essex County Cricket Club. I am sure he was with us in Scarborough as we achieved a stunning two day victory against Yorkshire.

“We saw a rare glimpse of emotion from Doug following the announcement that the Pavilion would be renamed following his contribution to Essex Cricket. We look forward to the official naming ceremony during the Yorkshire match in September.

“Doug was a special person, and the Club will miss him greatly. We were fortunate to benefit from his knowledge and wisdom, something he always shared with cricket lovers. His memory will be with us for many years to come.”

Club Captain, Ryan ten Doeschate paid tribute to Doug, describing him as a “fantastic servant to cricket”: