ICC09 Essex Save
June 28, 2010
Everyone is playing their last game of the T20 group stage.
Essex are 4th in our group, equal on points with Middlesex and Kent, but with a terrible NRR. Our last game is home to group leaders Hampshire. In order to qualify for the quarters, we have to beat them, then either Middlesex or Kent must lose, and Northamptonshire or Nottinghamshire in the other groups must also lose.
Essex lineup: M Pettini, B Wright, R ten Doeschate, M Walker, R Bopara(vc), G Napier(c), J Foster(wk), M Hardinges, P Welch, D Kaneria, D Masters
Yes, shock! horror! Hardinges (and Wright for that matter) are in the team as batsmen ahead of Alastair Cook!
Hampshire: M Lumb(c), M Carberry, K Pietersen, N Pothas(wk), J Crawley, S Ervine, C Kieswetter, C Tremlett, C Langeveldt(vc), D Griffiths, J Tomlinson
Unfamiliar players here:
Ben Wright (Essex): Glamorgan let him go last year, and we snapped him up as a bargain for 23,500 a year on a two-year deal. Hasn’t set the world on fire as yet, but has achieved a regular spot opening in the T20 side.
Paul Welch (Essex): Mid-year regen for us last year. Medium-fast specialist bowler. Twenty-seven games so far in all formats, 21 of them this year. Very handy - we'd be in trouble without him.
David Griffiths (Hampshire): he’s in Hampshire’s 2011 squad in real life, although he doesn’t play T20 for them. Right-arm fast-medium specialist bowler. In game this was only his second T20 this year, and fifth overall.
Essex won the toss and batted. Pettini is on fire, taking 25 off two Tremlett overs. Wright is more circumspect with less of the strike, and last ball of the 4th over, he is run out coming back for a second. First wicket down on 40. Two more overs go for ten each, then in the 7th, ten Doeschate is caught at third man by Tremlett off Tomlinson, and we’re 60 for 2. This is the start of a substantial collapse, Walker, Pettini and Napier go cheaply as only 13 runs are scored off the next six overs. Tomlinson and Langeveldt now have two apiece and it’s 76 for 5 after 13.
But Bopara and Foster are still attacking. Defending their wickets to the end, and scoring 13 off three consecutive overs, and 7 or 8 off each of the others, they take Essex to 144 for 5 at the end of their 20. Bopara ends on 39 off 33, Foster with 28 off 25. It’s only a par score, but then it’s been a low-scoring tournament. And especially so for Essex – this is their highest score in this year’s T20 to date.
The Hampshire innings doesn’t start so well. Ten Doeschate has Carberry out lbw in the first over. However, this only brings a fired-up KP to the crease. His partnership of 35 with Michael Lumb comes off just 24 balls. Then Kaneria bowls Lumb in his first over, and Pothas joins Pietersen in the middle. Their partnership of 39 lasts for 36 balls. So when Kaneria gets Pietersen caught in the deep, and Crawley replaces him, Hampshire are 75 for 3, requiring 70 off 57 balls for victory.
Time for Hampshire to experience a significant mid-innings crash of their own, however. In the space of 30 balls, 5 more wickets fall. This leaves them needing 47 off 27, with only two wickets left to lose.
Although Tremlett and Griffiths put together a decent partnership, taking 8 off the rest of the 16th over, and 8 an over from the next three, they are left needing 15 from the last, to be bowled by the dangerous but erratic ten Doeschate. First ball is a wide, but the second has Griffiths playing and missing, and the third cleans him up. Four balls to score 14 with number 11 Tomlinson at the crease. He gets a boundary with a dab fine of third man first ball, but a couple of lbw shouts in the remaining balls ensure that the target is not reached. Hampshire end on 135 for 9, Essex win by 9. Ten Doeschate, for whom Griffiths was his 4th wicket while conceding 28 off his 4 overs, gets yet another Man of the Match award.
The first and hardest hurdle for Essex’ qualification for the quarters has been negotiated. Now we must go around the grounds, to see whether other results have helped us. Yes! Surrey beat Kent! Now we just need Northants or Notts to have been defeated. Well, Northants won a close one over Worcs, but Notts have been comprehensively beaten by Lancashire (ironically ensuring that neither of them progress). We are the best of the 3rd place finishers, and go through.
The quarter-final draw is complete, and we’re gonna play… away to … Hampshire!
June 28, 2010
Everyone is playing their last game of the T20 group stage.
Essex are 4th in our group, equal on points with Middlesex and Kent, but with a terrible NRR. Our last game is home to group leaders Hampshire. In order to qualify for the quarters, we have to beat them, then either Middlesex or Kent must lose, and Northamptonshire or Nottinghamshire in the other groups must also lose.
Essex lineup: M Pettini, B Wright, R ten Doeschate, M Walker, R Bopara(vc), G Napier(c), J Foster(wk), M Hardinges, P Welch, D Kaneria, D Masters
Yes, shock! horror! Hardinges (and Wright for that matter) are in the team as batsmen ahead of Alastair Cook!
Hampshire: M Lumb(c), M Carberry, K Pietersen, N Pothas(wk), J Crawley, S Ervine, C Kieswetter, C Tremlett, C Langeveldt(vc), D Griffiths, J Tomlinson
Unfamiliar players here:
Ben Wright (Essex): Glamorgan let him go last year, and we snapped him up as a bargain for 23,500 a year on a two-year deal. Hasn’t set the world on fire as yet, but has achieved a regular spot opening in the T20 side.
Paul Welch (Essex): Mid-year regen for us last year. Medium-fast specialist bowler. Twenty-seven games so far in all formats, 21 of them this year. Very handy - we'd be in trouble without him.
David Griffiths (Hampshire): he’s in Hampshire’s 2011 squad in real life, although he doesn’t play T20 for them. Right-arm fast-medium specialist bowler. In game this was only his second T20 this year, and fifth overall.
Essex won the toss and batted. Pettini is on fire, taking 25 off two Tremlett overs. Wright is more circumspect with less of the strike, and last ball of the 4th over, he is run out coming back for a second. First wicket down on 40. Two more overs go for ten each, then in the 7th, ten Doeschate is caught at third man by Tremlett off Tomlinson, and we’re 60 for 2. This is the start of a substantial collapse, Walker, Pettini and Napier go cheaply as only 13 runs are scored off the next six overs. Tomlinson and Langeveldt now have two apiece and it’s 76 for 5 after 13.
But Bopara and Foster are still attacking. Defending their wickets to the end, and scoring 13 off three consecutive overs, and 7 or 8 off each of the others, they take Essex to 144 for 5 at the end of their 20. Bopara ends on 39 off 33, Foster with 28 off 25. It’s only a par score, but then it’s been a low-scoring tournament. And especially so for Essex – this is their highest score in this year’s T20 to date.
The Hampshire innings doesn’t start so well. Ten Doeschate has Carberry out lbw in the first over. However, this only brings a fired-up KP to the crease. His partnership of 35 with Michael Lumb comes off just 24 balls. Then Kaneria bowls Lumb in his first over, and Pothas joins Pietersen in the middle. Their partnership of 39 lasts for 36 balls. So when Kaneria gets Pietersen caught in the deep, and Crawley replaces him, Hampshire are 75 for 3, requiring 70 off 57 balls for victory.
Time for Hampshire to experience a significant mid-innings crash of their own, however. In the space of 30 balls, 5 more wickets fall. This leaves them needing 47 off 27, with only two wickets left to lose.
Although Tremlett and Griffiths put together a decent partnership, taking 8 off the rest of the 16th over, and 8 an over from the next three, they are left needing 15 from the last, to be bowled by the dangerous but erratic ten Doeschate. First ball is a wide, but the second has Griffiths playing and missing, and the third cleans him up. Four balls to score 14 with number 11 Tomlinson at the crease. He gets a boundary with a dab fine of third man first ball, but a couple of lbw shouts in the remaining balls ensure that the target is not reached. Hampshire end on 135 for 9, Essex win by 9. Ten Doeschate, for whom Griffiths was his 4th wicket while conceding 28 off his 4 overs, gets yet another Man of the Match award.
The first and hardest hurdle for Essex’ qualification for the quarters has been negotiated. Now we must go around the grounds, to see whether other results have helped us. Yes! Surrey beat Kent! Now we just need Northants or Notts to have been defeated. Well, Northants won a close one over Worcs, but Notts have been comprehensively beaten by Lancashire (ironically ensuring that neither of them progress). We are the best of the 3rd place finishers, and go through.
The quarter-final draw is complete, and we’re gonna play… away to … Hampshire!
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