LONDON: Essex moved to within touching distance of their first English County Championship title in 25 years after they beat Warwickshire by an innings and 56 runs at Edgbaston on Thursday.
Victory for the visitors meant Essex, only promoted to the First Division at the start of this season, will be crowned champions if Lancashire fail to win away to Somerset on Friday's final day of four.
Given Lancashire were 247 for eight in their second innings after following on at the end of the third day -- a lead of just 45 runs with two wickets standing -- only an extraordinary turn of events in Taunton will stop Essex winning their first Championship title since 1992 on Friday.
Prolific Essex wicket-takers Simon Harmer (four for 25) and Jamie Porter (three for 37), who shared 15 wickets in the match, again did the damage as Warwickshire, bottom of the First Division, slumped to 112 all out.
Essex captain Ryan ten Doeschate said his side's success this season proved the gap between the First and Second Divisions of the first-class County Championship was not as wide as often suggested by many pundits.
"There's not much difference and it's one of the myths I hope we've dispelled this year," said the Dutchman as he reflected on the season enjoyed by Essex, based in Chelmsford, east of London.
"Teams coming up don't necessarily have to go down," said ten Doeschate of an Essex side who were boosted by contributions earlier in the campaign from former England captain Alastair Cook -- still a Test-match opening batsman -- and Pakistan paceman Mohammad Amir.
"It's foolish to look at past records. You need to look at the team and the players you've got. By putting yourself in the position of fearing the change -- it doesn't help anyone.
"The myth of the big gap between the divisions got in our heads a little bit at the start."
English county scores on Thursday:
COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP (third day of four)
FIRST DIVISION
+At Edgbaston: Warwickshire 201 (D Sibley 76; S Harmer 4-47, J Porter 4-62) and 112 (S Harmer 4-25) v Essex 369-9 dec (V Chopra 98, D Lawrence 78, J Foster 68)
Essex (23pts) beat Warwickshire (3pts) by an innings and 56 runs
+At Uxbridge: Middlesex 162-7 v Hampshire
+At Taunton: Somerset 335 (S Davies 111, M Parkinson 4-68) v Lancashire 133 (J Leach 5-47) and 247-8 (H Hameed 62, L Livingstone 57; J Leach 4-79)
+At The Oval: Surrey 592 (K Sangakkara 164, M Stoneman 131, B Foakes 110, R Burns 75; J Brooks 5-113) v Yorkshire 394 (S Marsh 78, T Kohler-Cadmore 78, A Hodd 57) and 59-1
SECOND DIVISION
+At Cardiff: Glamorgan 207 (A Salter 59; R Gleeson 5-60) and 320 (C Cooke 69) v Northamptonshire 310 (R Levi 101, R Newton 67; M Hogan 4-58) and 42-1
+At Bristol: Gloucestershire 385 (C Bancroft 206 no, C Dent 59) and 67-0 v Kent 386 (S Northeast 66, D Stevens 65 no, D Bell-Drummond 58, J Denly 57; J Shaw 5-118)
+At Hove: Derbyshire 338 (B Godleman 51, L Reece 51; D Wiese 4-63) and 322-8 (H Podmore 66 no, H Hosein 52, M Critchley 51; S G Whittingham 5-80) v Sussex 271 (L Wright 70 no; H Viljoen 7-80)
+At New Road: Leicestershire 404 (N Dexter 114, M Cosgrove 74) and 111-7 v Worcestershire 493 (B D'Oliveira 138, O Cox 77, D Mitchell 58; C Parkinson 8-148) – AFP
0 comments:
Post a Comment