365 Sporting Days

This is going to be more photo drop than blog. But first a round up of the One Day Cup so far for Essex. The cup started with a rained off game against Lancashire after Lancs had scored 270 for 7 in their 36 overs. Essex’s first home game saw them bowled out for 69 in just 25.1 overs after Notts had scored 237, Will Buttleman ‘Top Scored’ with 19. Tom Westley had won the toss and fielded at home, he won the toss at the Ageas Bowl and elected to bat. Essex batted for 45 overs this time and fell to 53 for 4. New signing for the competition Beau Webster who was playing at Upminster and Simon Harmer put on 121 for the 5th wicket. Webster scored 73 from 99 balls and Harmer 68 from 75 balls. One of the keys in this competition has to be to bat for the full 50 overs. but that didn’t happen. Hampshire scored the runs required in 43.4 overs. Another home match this time against Middlesex, and another toss won, Essex batted first and this time for the full 50 overs. Tom Westley scored 80 from 90 balls and Charlie Allison, who just received a Rookie contract 70 from 65 balls. Essex scored 298 for 9 in their 50 overs. Middlesex made 124 for their 1st wicket, then 175 for the 2nd at 236 for 4 in the 36th over it looked like this would be another loss for Essex, Middlesex moved to 257 for 7 in the 40th over, they needed 42 in just over 10 overs. With 3 runs required Ethan Bamber and Ishaan Kaushal tried for a 2nd run to the arm of Charlie Alliso, Bamber was run out with 6 balls remaining and just 3 runs required, snatching defeat from the Jase of victory for Middlesex! A win at last for Essex!

Yorkshire had lost their first match, a rain affected game Kent won by 2 runs via DLS. Their next 2 games were abandoned without a ball being bowled, hugely disappointing for their fans!

And so to the game in hand, Yorkshire travelled with a decent team, their captain being Shan Masood of Pakistan fame, the cricket ‘bible; Playfair told me he has a top T20 score of 103* and Limited Overs of 182*, I confess that wasn’t what I was expecting to see!

Tom Westley won the toss, again, and elected to bat. Things started well as Michael Pepper put on a show with 63 from 34 balls, he and Robin Das put on 103 for the first wicket. Pepper is a delight to watch in full flow, but sadly was out to a poor shot. He returned to the Hundred for London Spirit after this match.

63 from 34 balls before Michael Pepper was caught by Finlay Bean from the bowling of Dom Bess.

Robin Das is a lovely batter to watch he scored 36 from 36 balls as Pepper fired at the other end. Das was the 3rd wicket to fall, to a great catch from his own bowling for Matthew Revis. It was good to see Dom Bess in a Yorkshire shirt, he’s had at least 2 loan spells this summer and his inclusion certainly worked for Yorkshire he took 5 for 37 in his 7.4 overs as he and Revis were both looking for that 5th wicket, Revis took 4 for 54 in his 8 overs. Ben Coad on the other hand had a torrid 4 overs, conceding 22 runs in one over and 44 in the 4 he bowled.

Westley didn’t repeat his Friday night innings, he swiped at a ball from Revis and was caught behind for 17, he was clearly very disappointed in himself. Das followed in the next over and Essex were 125 for 3. Luc Benkenstein, playing as a batter after his stress fracture showed some lovely batting credentials to put on 50 for the 4th wicket with Beau Webster, Benkenstein scored 27 from 20 balls and hit 3 Fours and 2 Sixes. Webster scored 39 from 45 balls he seemed to be one of the only batters in the Essex line up prepared to run between the wickets, the others were trading in boundaries. Essex lost their last 5 wickets for just 40 runs as they were bowled out in just 35.4 overs.

Jamal Richards entertained for a few balls, but the Yorkshire bowlers dominated once the Essex openers had departed. Essex were bowled out for 221.

I was looking forward to watching Finlay Bean, he’s having a great season in the red ball game, he’s scored 660 runs at an average of 47.14 so far. He and Harry Duke put on 80 for the 1st wicket, with were good to watch. Bean scored 39 from 44 balls and Duke a more leisurely 42 from 72 balls.

Bean and Duke entertained and went a long way to getting the job done for Yorkshire.

Shan Masood was unsurprisingly the glue that saw Yorkshire through this innings, he scored 54 from 66 balls and batted for over an hour, Duke also has to be given credit for the 109 minutes he batted. Masood did hit 4 Fours and a Six but he also ran between the wickets accumulating his runs over 13 overs.

An international star, it was great to see Masood in action.

Essex did take 2 quick wickets as Aron Nijjar took his 2nd wicket to despatch George Hill for 1, Will Fraine fell to a great catch from his own bowling, by Simon Harmer for 2.

James Wharton who made his Yorkshire debut in 2022 scored 54 from 49 balls, hitting 5 Fours and 2 Sixes, Revis contributed 21 and Yorkshire had a win in 45.5 overs. They made better use of the balls avaiilable to them. This is a format I really enjoy, a game completed in a day but one that needs tactics, Essex haven’t got their tactics quite right so far.

Next up for Essex is a trip to Kibworth Cricket `Club in Leicestershire to play a team that is flying high! I’m very much looking forward to some outground cricket and watching former Essex player Rishi Patel batting.