Today is the final day of a round of county championship fixtures. With the test match at Headingley between England and Pakistan failing to go the distance (see here) I have been focussing instead on Somerset v Essex at Taunton.
AN INTERESTING DECISION
I started to follow this match when Somerset, having produced a mighty first innings score, were bowling Essex out cheaply in their first innings. As always when such a possibility arises there was speculation over whether or not the follow-on should be enforced. I felt, as did veteran Somerset commentator Anthony Gibson, that they should do so. I thought their best chance of winning was to bowl Essex out again, and I did not think that Essex with a deficit of 311 to overturn were remotely likely to be able build a winning lead and have time to bowl Somerset out a second time. In the event Somerset themselves also reckoned that putting Essex back in was the right thing to do.
A HUGE PARTNERSHIP
Essex lost their third wicket at 127, still 184 short of avoiding the innings defeat. At that point Charlie Allison and Matt Critchley joined forces for what proved to be a very long partnership. At the close of day three Essex were 314-3, three runs ahead overall, with the pair still in occupation. Although Essex had done superbly to get into that position I still felt only two results were on, a draw if Essex kept batting well and a win if they did not. In the event Jack Leach had a magnificent morning for Somerset, gaining the reward that his hard graft through the Essex innings had earned him. By lunch he had figures of 53-21-77-5, four of those wickets in the morning session. Essex were 394-7, 83 ahead, and their best remaining hope was Simon Harmer, mainly an off spinner but also a very useful lower order batter.
THE CLOSING STAGES
Leach, the hero of the fourth morning, left the field injured early in the afternoon, but young off spinner Archie Vaughan claimed the last three wickets, clean bowling Shane Snater, having Harmer inside edge one into the stumps for another ‘bowled’ in the scorebook and finally pinning Porter, a genuine number 11 (FC batting average 6.39) LBW to end the Essex second innings on 412, a lead of 101. Smaller totals than that have been defended over the years – way back in the 1930s Essex themselves once defended 54, bowling Yorkshire out for 33, to give just one example, but Essex would need to strike hard and early to win. They got one thing right, giving Harmer, their best hope on this fourth day pitch, the new ball. However their field setting for their star off spinner was awry – the fielder on the boundary square of the wicket on the offside was wasted, since they could only come into play if Harmer bowled short, which he was never likely to do. Harmer himself should probably have insisted on that fielder being deployed elsewhere. Somerset started the chase very brightly, having 50 on the board before the end of the seventh over. Harmer did pick up the wickets of Josh Thomas for 31 and Lewis Goldsworthy for 6 but Kiwi international Henry Nicholls ensured that there would be no nonsense, scoring an unbeaten 18 and staying with Tom Lammonby (39 not out) while the winning runs were scored. Scorecard here. This very impressive win means that Somerset are now third in the table behind Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
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