Essex v Worcestershire
Vitality County Championship
The Cloud County Ground, Chelmsford
Thursday 29 August – Sunday 01 September 2024 | 11:00am start
Team News
Essex: Dean Elgar, Robin Das, Tom Westley*, Jordan Cox, Matt Critchley, Paul Walter, Michael Pepper+, Simon Harmer, Shane Snater, Sam Cook, Jamie Porter.
Worcestershire: Jake Libby, Gareth Roderick+, Kashif Ali, Rob Jones, Adam Hose, Brett D’Oliveira*, Ethan Brookes, Logan van Beek, Tom Taylor, Joe Leach, Amar Virdi.
Jordan Cox replaced Noah Thain in the starting XI after being released before play on Day One by England.
Match Details
Umpires: David Millns & Steve O’Shaughnessy
Match Referee: Peter Such
Scorers: Paul Parkinson & Sue Drinkwater
Toss: Worcestershire won the toss and chose to bat first
Result: Worcestershire won by 43 runs
Scorecard: View here
Day Four Reaction: Anthony McGrath
Day Four Highlights
Day Four Report
Sam Cook completing a four-wicket haul on the final morning of Essex’s Vitality County Championship clash with Worcestershire was not enough to save the Eagles from a gut-wrenchingly narrow 43-run defeat.
Cook claimed the two Pears wickets that were required within the day’s first five overs, ending the visitors’ second innings on 321, to set up a chase of 184 for victory.
However, despite a confident start that at one point saw Essex 53-1, an almighty Worcestershire fightback dismissed the hosts for 140, with Robin Das’s 32 the top score.
Cook finished with figures of 4/23 as he removed Tom Taylor, caught behind by Michael Pepper for 17, and last man Amar Virdi, caught and bowled for two, to wrap up the Worcestershire innings early on.
Das and captain Tom Westley then made a confident start to the chase, with the former overcoming the loss of opening partner Elgar, pinned lbw by Joe Leach, to guide the Eagles past 50.
It was at that point, however, that the chase began to slip from the hosts’ grasp, as Westley, Das, and Jordan Cox all fell before lunch to leave Essex 75-4, still 109 away from winning.
Das’ dismissal was the most exceptionally unlucky of the three, run out backing up after Brett D’Oliveira, fielding at short mid-off, had deflected Cox’s drive off Logan van Beek onto the stumps.
Although Pepper and Simon Harmer fought back in the afternoon with a partnership of 38 following the further dismissals of Matt Critchley and Paul Walter, the latter’s wicket for 19 precipitated the end.
Pepper followed three overs later, and although last pair Cook and Jamie Porter held out for as long as they could, the Pears wrapped up a surprise win midway through the afternoon.
Day Three Reaction: Matt Critchley
Day Three Highlights
Day Three Report
Fifties by Jake Libby, Brett D’Oliveira, and Adam Hose ensured Worcestershire made Essex bat again in their rollercoaster match at Chelmsford. When bad light ended play 20 overs early on day three of the Vitality County Championship match, Worcestershire had turned a 138-run first-innings deficit into a 165-run lead.
Libby laid the foundation for the recovery with a 112-ball 65 at the top of the order. An 80-run stand for the sixth wicket between D’Oliveira (51 from 71 balls) and Hose (64 off 91) – after the pair came together with two runs still required to erase the arrears – gave Worcestershire hope of securing a third successive victory and moving clear of the relegation zone.
Simon Harmer led the mercurial Essex attack, bowling 26 overs in the shortened day and taking 3/110, including an extraordinary delivery to dismiss Hose. Essex will be aiming for a first victory in four games on the final day to keep their fading title hopes alive.
Nightwatchman Joe Leach lasted just four balls in the grey, overcast morning before Sam Cook ended his 21-ball duck by inducing a thick edge to the wicketkeeper. Gareth Roderick narrowly avoided a pair before he was turned around by Jamie Porter on six and nicked to second slip.
Libby found solid support from Kashif Ali in a 51-run third-wicket stand until Paul Walter, introduced into the attack, had Ali caught at slip with his fourth ball. Libby survived a couple of scares but reached his fifty off 90 balls, his eighth four helped high over the wicketkeeper’s head. Rob Jones, Libby’s new partner, took a liking to Harmer, hitting four consecutive boundaries, two of them identical sweeps.
However, the 55-run fourth-wicket stand was broken soon after lunch when Libby drove loosely at Cook and was caught low at backward point. Six runs later, Jones fell for another sweep against Harmer, with Dean Elgar completing the dismissal after running back from square leg.
Worcestershire was five down, still two runs short of making Essex bat again. That milestone was soon achieved and built upon as Hose and D’Oliveira dug in initially, with Porter coming on for three overs and leaving without conceding a run. The first fifty of their partnership took 16 overs.
The run rate accelerated, with 31 runs added in the next four overs before Matt Critchley switched ends to give Harmer a rest. Critchley’s first ball saw D’Oliveira edge to second slip. Harmer returned after tea and immediately dismissed Hose, who padded up outside off-stump to a ball that turned sharply, leaving him bewildered as he saw the bails dislodged.
Harmer claimed a third wicket when Ethan Brookes, attempting a reverse-sweep as he had successfully done in the first innings, edged to Robin Das at short leg, who dived full-length to take a one-handed catch.
With floodlights on and the light deteriorating, Essex declined the option of taking the new ball after 80 overs, sticking with their spinners. The gesture proved futile as the umpires deemed it too dark to continue an over later.
Day Two Highlights
Day Two Reaction: Michael Pepper
Day Two Report
Michael Pepper’s sublime maiden first-class century underpinned Essex’s efforts to build a sizeable lead over Worcestershire on Day Two of the sides’ Vitality County Championship clash.
Pepper, who earlier this summer made waves with his first two T20 hundreds, the most recent an unforgettably scintillating effort away to Sussex, fluently struck an unbeaten 112 from 125 balls.
His knock included 13 fours and a six, and helped the Eagles, who resumed on an overnight 50-1, recover from a potentially perilous 205-6 to post 404 all out.
That gave the hosts a lead of 138 as they seized hold of the game, but it also sealed four vital batting bonus points that had, earlier in the day, looked potentially unlikely.
Initially, things were rosier as the Kookaburra ball, which was just shy of 20 overs old at the morning’s restart, failed to trouble Robin Das and Tom Westley, who moved Essex to three figures with ease.
The breakthrough did come, however, a little over an hour into the day’s play, when Das was bowled by Ethan Brookes for 46, ending a partnership of 65.
Westley’s composure was much needed to navigate the remaining overs before lunch, as Worcestershire found further joy to remove both Jordan Cox and Matt Critchley in short succession.
The Essex captain ground out a 61st first-class fifty in 95 balls, and found support in Paul Walter’s 33, but when both departed midway through the afternoon, the Pears sensed an opening.
Aiming to drive home their new-found initiative, Simon Harmer was also removed shortly before the arrival of the new ball with Essex still 39 shy of parity.
However, Pepper and Shane Snater staged a sparkling fightback, adding a mammoth 134 for the eighth wicket either side of tea to reinvigorate the hosts.
Pepper’s fifty came in 64 balls, while the support he found from Snater, who himself hit a half-century in making 53, was invaluable as their counter-attacking brought about a three-figure Essex lead.
A few nervy moments awaited the 26-year-old wicketkeeper as he tiptoed past 98, but his crowning moment did finally arrive when he sweetly straight drove a quick two.
As if to underline his credentials even further, he then stepped forward to Ethan Brookes, Worcestershire’s leading bowler in the innings, and belted an almighty maximum to move on to 110.
The hosts were bowled out shortly afterwards, allowing Worcestershire five overs in the middle, an amount they battled through to close on two without loss, still 136 in arrears.
Day One Highlights
Day One Report
Jamie Porter marked the return of Vitality County Championship cricket to The Cloud County Ground with a five-wicket haul as Essex enjoyed a dominant first day against Worcestershire.
Porter, who reached 500 career first-class wickets at the beginning of July, claimed his 19th five-for in the format by returning figures of 5/52 as the Pears were bowled out for 266.
It could have been even worse for the visitors were it not for the resistance provided by captain Brett D’Oliveira and Tom Taylor, who both hit half-centuries in making 68 and 62 not out, respectively.
With the Pears dismissed in 75 overs, Essex had 19 further overs to survive late in the day, and despite losing Dean Elgar with the last ball of the day for 29, Robin Das’ unbeaten 21 helped them to 50-1.
Porter and opening partner Sam Cook initially had the Kookaburra ball, back in the Championship for the first time since April, on a string as Worcestershire were reduced to 10-4 inside the first five overs.
Jake Libby was first to go for seven, caught in two minds between playing and leaving as Porter jagged one into his off-stump, before Cook rapped Gareth Roderick on the back pad for a nine-ball duck.
With the visitors already reeling, Essex then struck further gold as wicketkeeper Michael Pepper and Porter combined twice in the space of three balls to see off Rob Jones and Adam Hose.
From the steady harbour of seven without loss in the second over, Worcestershire had suddenly found themselves in the stormiest of seas, standing at 10-4 midway through the fifth.
Pears stalwart D’Oliveira battled back with the ball beginning to become somewhat less threatening, adding a comparatively dominant 36 for the fifth wicket with Kashif Ali.
However, Ali’s own counter-attacking effort that had brought him a run-a-ball 24, was ended when he chopped on to become Porter’s fourth victim.
Some lower-order resistance, driven by D’Oliveira, helped the visitors past 100, though two further wickets fell after lunch as the Pepper/Porter combination did for Ethan Brookes while four short of fifty.
That marked Porter’s five-for, his tenth at The Cloud County Ground, and Simon Harmer joined the party shortly after as Logan van Beek, on six, chipped one back to the bowler for a simple catch.
D’Oliveira’s resistance was finally ended an hour later, after he had passed fifty, as Harmer pinned him lbw, before the same fate befell Joe Leach on five to leave Worcestershire nine down.
Debutant Amar Virdi and the pugnacious Taylor delayed the inevitable with a battling last-wicket stand of 64, though Shane Snater removed the former for 42, caught by Elgar, to wrap things up.
Elgar was then immediately involved once again, fighting alongside Das to make inroads into the Worcestershire lead, which they did successfully for almost the entire 19 overs.
The South African, still making waves in his debut season in Essex colours, was uprooted by Taylor in the final over of the day, but Essex still closed in the strong position of just one down and 216 behind.
Cricket & Craft Ale Festival at The Cloud County Ground
Essex Cricket and Greene King are joining forces to create a Cricket & Craft Ale Festival during the first three days of the Vitality County Championship fixture between Essex and Worcestershire at The Cloud County Ground.
Greene King will be supplying as many as twelve craft ales for fans to sip on whilst enjoying County Championship action in a crucial late-summer clash.
Fans can purchase tickets to Essex’s County Championship match against Worcestershire from £16 for Adults and there will be no additional cost to enter the Cricket & Craft Ale Festival, with drinks to be purchased individually once inside.
Secure your seats to Essex v Worcestershire and sample Greene King’s craft ales:
