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After dodging the rain to record a remarkable and record-breaking victory over Kent at Canterbury, Essex travel to Leeds hoping to back up an excellent team performance.

The win strengthened Essex’s position in the Division One of the LV= Insurance County Championship, opening a 25-point gap between them and 5th place Northamptonshire, who lost to Hampshire.

Essex are currently 30 points behind Lancashire, who occupy 3rd place, but have a game in hand and the two sides are due to meet for the final game of the season hosted at Chelmsford.

Squad:

There is just one change to the squad which headed to Canterbury last week. Paul Walter continues to nurse a shoulder injury that kept him out of last week’s win and he is replaced by Robin Das in the group of 13.

Simon Harmer is currently with the South Africa Test squad and unavailable for selection in this fixture.

The Opposition:

Yorkshire made a strong start to the season but their performances with the red-ball have dropped off and they find themselves in 6th place in the Division One table on 129 points.

They haven’t won a game after beating Gloucestershire on the opening fixture of the season and while their seven draws should have earned them enough points to avoid being drawn into a relegation battle, they will want to finish the season as they started it.

Harry Brook has been a revelation with the bat for Yorkshire for a number of years, but has turned promise into runs this season, scoring 967 runs at an astonishing average of 107.44. However, he has joined Joe Root in the England Test squad. Adam Lyth has scored 626 runs at 42.38 and a lot will be required of him in their absence.

Young all-rounder Jordan Thompson has impressed in all formats of the game but has done a job for Yorkshire with the new ball this season, taking 37 wickets. Spinner Dom Bess is their other bowler to take more than 30 wickets.

Last time out:

The two sides last met at Chelmsford in May, where they played out a draw as Alastair Cook scored two centuries in a match for the first time and Walter scored his maiden first-class ton.

Batting first, Essex lost Browne early and when Bess struck to remove Westley, they were 56-2. That brought Cook and Walter together, who combined for a 174-run third-wicket partnership and laid the foundations for a large first innings score.

After bringing up their centuries, a succession of wickets fell before Harmer chipped in with a half-century of his own to see Essex past 400.

Sam Cook and Snater then reduced Yorkshire to 81-3 at the end of Day Two, with Essex hoping to make early inroads on Day Three and maintain pressure. However, the international duo of Root and Malan thwarted Essex, before Brook struck a spectacular hundred to see Yorkshire to 465.

With Essex needing to bat out the remainder of Day Four for a draw, Cook and Browne cashed in on the opportunity to score runs on a friendly wicket. Essex finished 167-0, Cook having notched his second hundred of the match and Browne reaching a fifty of his own.

How To Watch:

A free live stream of the game will be provided via The Essex Cricket Matchzone, which includes player stats, scorecards and clips throughout the game.

The broadcast can be accessed via the Essex Cricket Matchzone, courtesy of our hosts, Yorkshire – here.

Cricket will resume on Saturday to pay tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and honour her remarkable life and service.

Following the cancellation of Friday’s cricket fixtures as a mark of respect on the announcement of her death, the England and Wales Cricket Board can confirm that play will resume from Saturday including international, domestic, and recreational fixtures. The decision has been taken after consultation with DCMS and in line with Official National Mourning guidance.

This means the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy match between Sunrisers and Lightning staged at The Cloud County Ground on Sunday will go ahead. In addition, Essex’s LV= Insurance County Championship fixture at Headingley starting on Monday will also go ahead over four days as scheduled.

Before each match, a minute’s silence will be observed followed by the national anthem. All players and coaches will wear black armbands. Branded inventory will be replaced with messaging paying cricket’s respects to The Queen.

Everyone at Essex Cricket expresses their deepest condolences to the Royal Family after the tragic loss of Her Majesty The Queen, Elizabeth II (1926-2022).

As a show of respect and gratitude, flags at The Cloud County Ground will be flown at half-mast throughout the national period of mourning.

An update will be issued in due course in relation to upcoming fixtures and events.

When Sam Cook arrived in Canterbury in August 2019, he was a young seam bowler on the up. Having made his Essex debut in the title-winning 2017 season, he demonstrated enough promise to be trusted in sharing the new ball with Jamie Porter the following year.

Despite this, the 22-year-old wasn’t the main topic of Kent’s team meetings in the run-up to their County Championship fixture tie. Mohammad Amir, having just announced his retirement from Test cricket, agreed to play a one-off fixture for Essex which was due to be the last red-ball appearance of his career.

Three days later, Cook had claimed match figures of 12/65 and picked up 7/23 as Kent were bowled out for 40 in their second innings. The limelight was his.

As the pandemic intervened, it was three years before Cook returned to Canterbury to play County Championship cricket, but his memories of the ground remained strong.

“It’s a ground I enjoy bowling at. It’s similar to Lord’s in that there’s obviously a big slope and I’ve enjoyed bowling and trying to use that slope, particularly when it’s not swinging or not doing much in the air. It gives you something to work with.

“2019 was a special win that set us on the way to winning the title, so it’s becoming a nice ground that I enjoy bowling at.”

What followed was another incredible spell of seam bowling, he followed 3/27 in the first innings with a devastating spell of 7/33 in the second as Essex wrapped up their largest ever victory over their rivals.

It was a performance that prompted talk of him being a potential heir to James Anderson, a claim which Essex skipper Tom Westley agreed with: “I’d echo that. I haven’t seen a seamer bowl better than him whenever we’ve played against any team. He’s improving year on year.

“When he started he probably was mid to late seventies, but the work he puts in in the winter, in the gym, he’s obviously maturing, he’s getting faster as well, so for me he ticks all the boxes and he can bat a bit as well.

“We could keep talking about Sammy Cook and I have done relentlessly, but he’s absolutely world-class, I don’t think there’s a better seamer.

“The stats will back it up, he gets wickets in the first innings, the second innings, at Chelmsford and away from Chelmsford and he’s phenomenal. We’re very lucky to have him at Essex.”

And the stats are good. They are very good. Cook now has 198 first-class wickets at an average of 19.70 and his performances have been recognised by England Lions call-ups.

At the age of 25, he appears to be entering his prime and as he routs opposition batting units up and down the country, his name is top of the agenda during pre-match briefings.

The Cloud County Ground hosts Sunrisers on Sunday 11 September as they face the Lightning in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy.

Join the Sunrisers for their final home game of the season in the 50-over competition and a chance to see some of the stars from this year’s Hundred competition.

Tickets for the match are on sale now and available to purchase online, priced at £10 Adults, £5 Students/Young Adults (18-24), £5 Juniors (U18) and free for 2022 Essex Members.

Play begins at 10:30am with gates open from 9:30am at The Cloud County Ground.

It was another special moment for the career of Feroze Khushi on Day Two against Kent as he struck his maiden first-class century in just his third Championship game for the Club.

After finishing the opening day alongside Matt Critchley on 46, it tooks only the first delivery of Day Two for Khushi to strike a Grant Stewart delivery through mid-wicket for four to bring up his second first-class half-century.

the landmark moment for the 23-year-old came after 228 deliveries as he took the single to reach three figures for the first time in red-ball cricket. He pushed on in the middle with Ben Allison and brought up the 150 runs just 52 balls later to cap off a fantastic innings.

Khushi said after play: “I’ve had a couple of good celebrations this year! I kind of pride myself on my celebration. I obviously lay flat thanking God as well, because without Him nothing would happen and without my parents’ hard work this success wouldn’t be possible, so I always keep them in my thoughts. I pride myself on my beliefs and it’s very important for me, being a Muslim and a British Pakistani. I’m very thankful and appreciative of my form at the moment. I’m doing quite well and I hope it can continue.

“This is a really good feeling. In the position we were in and obviously with a lot of guys watching it was just nice to get a big one. I’ve scored a couple this year in the Royal London Cup which were not as big, but this time I kicked on and got 150 plus. I’m still disappointed in how I got out at the end because I pride myself on not giving away my wicket, but I’m just really happy today.

“I just played my normal self, I didn’t have to do anything differently. I was getting enough bad balls and just putting them away and obviously, we lost a couple of quick wickets after Critch [Matt Critchley] went. Benny [Allison] came in and batted really well and that partnership of a hundred was crucial because it could have been a different game.

“I felt really positive, I was hitting them nicely and when you hit a few boundaries early doors you build confidence, you feel more comfortable and things just kept flowing. I’m very happy, we played really well and we’re in a very strong position.

“There are periods in the game when you have to respect the bowling and they have got some good bowlers, so you aren’t going to score as many runs, but that’s not a problem. This is four-day cricket and you’ve got all day to bat, so you just pick off the bad balls and rotate the strike. I pride myself on batting for long periods of time.”

Photo: Max Flego Photography

The final month of Essex’s 2022 cricket calendar will be completed with four rounds of LV= Insurance County Championship fixtures and Division One looks set for an entertaining finish with both ends of the table in play.

Essex lead the mid-table pack in 4th place with 135 points and will the three sides below them and Lancashire, the side above them before the season is over.

Essex start away to 7th place Kent, who will be well aware that only 15 points separate them and the bottom two.

Squad:

The Opposition:

Kent claimed one of the rarer titles last year when finishing top of Division Three in a County Championship adapted due to the pandemic.

Their form in red-ball cricket has been temperamental in 2022, not winning a game until their 7th fixture of the season, but picking up plenty of draws in between.

They have won two, lost two and drawn one of their last five fixtures, dragging themselves up the table in the process.

Ben Compton has shot into the limelight in 2022, going from an unknown quantity into a banker for Kent and even being spoken about for higher honours. He is the only batter in the top tier to have reached 1000 runs in the County Championship and has done so at an average of 62.16. Daniel Bell-Drummond has also enjoyed an excellent season, scoring 829 runs at 51.81.

While Kent have shown the ability to score big runs this season, they have struggled to bowl sides out and that’s represented by the fact that on six separate occasions sides have racked up 500 against them.

Of Kent’s bowlers, only Matt Henry and Navdeep Saini have averaged below 30 with the ball and both have since returned from their overseas stints. The bowler with the next best average is Nathan Gilchrist, whose 19 wickets have come at 37.21, while Matt Milnes leads the wicket-taking charts with 21 victims at 40.80.

Kent sit on 114 points after 11 games, 21 points behind Essex and having played one more game. A strong last three games for the opposition will see them secure a spot in the middle of the table, however, a string of losses will see them enter a relegation battle.

As things stand:

Last time out:

The two sides last met in during the opening round of County Championship matches as bat dominated ball in a draw at Chelmsford.

Batting first, Essex’s openers put on a 220-run partnership with both Nick Browne and Alastair Cook reaching three figures. Each batter fell shortly afterwards, but Matt Critchley, on debut, gave the Essex crowd a taste of his ability with the bat, striking 132 from 179 balls as Essex posted 514.

In response, Ben Compton gave an indication of things to come by hitting 129 at the top of the order as Kent’s response got off to a good start. Jordan Cox, coming in at number four, then equalled Compton with 129 of his own before fifties for Darren Stevens and Matt Milnes saw Kent to 581 with little time remaining on the final day.

Despite Kent’s mammoth total, Critchley displayed his all-round capabilities by taking 4/114, while Dan Lawrence chipped in with 3/98.

Batting for a second time with a draw inevitable, Cook (26*) and Tom Westley (32*) saw the game out as Essex finished 68-1 with each team picking up 12 points.

How To Watch:

A free live stream of the game will be provided by our hosts via The Essex Cricket Matchzone, which includes player stats, scorecards and clips throughout the game.

The broadcast can be accessed via the Essex Cricket Matchzone here.