Having spent two days at Lord’s, where a Middlesex win looks odds-on, it’s time to head to the Fortress to see how two favoured teams in the Championship are doing.
Lancashire start the day 228 behind with nine, second innings wickets in hand, having scored 146 in the first innings before Essex powered to 377 in theirs.
None of the Lancs bats seemed to get to grips on day one with rain around, Essex seemed to have no difficulty batting yesterday so on day three with the weather cool at best, a fair wind and a bit of Northern grit, Lancashire should make a better fist of things and potentially get the match into day four.
But Essex would add their ten-pennorth…and didn’t they just!
Starting at 10/1, we soon saw 22/2 before a mid innings collapse of 5 for 26. The writing was clearly on the wall and the question became how long into the afternoon could Lancashire hold out.
No one gave the impression of any permanence, playing silly shots and almost hinting that they wanted to get back on to the M6 before the Sunday evening weekend rush starts!
This takes nothing away from some fine Essex bowling on a pitch still with hints of green from afar. The pace triumvirate of Cook, Porter and now Snater bodes well for the season. They took eight wickets between them, Harmer grabbed two as the kamikaze batting played out.
With play extended to 1.10pm as part of a longer day to catch up for time lost to rain and then a 15 minute extension with 8 wickets down, it all became quite academic as the last wicket fell just after the initial extension. Lancashire skittled for 107 and losing by an innings and 124. Poor show.
My Aussie readers have asked how Nathan Lyon aka GOAT is getting on. I had hoped to see him bowl but in terms of batting – we English know how good he is (Edgbaston & Lord’s in the 23 Ashes) – today he showed how to defend! But at no 11, there was little he could do!
With a large chunk of the Championship season to be completed by the end of May, early season momentum is key to grasping the trophy at the end of September. Essex have that in spades at the moment and could well be the team to chase down.
Two wins out of three, a key team demolished in two days and a session, bowlers in a rich vein of form and clear markers set down for others to note – today was a true Tour de Fortress!
Cricket51days 