Rothesay County Championship: Essex 438 & 99-3 defeated Somerset 433 & 99 by seven wickets
Twenty-year-old Charlie Allison kept his head during an otherwise nervy hour and a quarter as Essex claimed a seven-wicket victory to round off the Rothesay County Championship season, writes Martin Smith, ECB Reporters’ Network.
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Allison, one of Essex’s stand-out performers during an otherwise disappointing season, finished the game with a second six off Jake Ball over long leg. He was 32 not out from 34 balls as Essex reached their target of 95 from just 18.4 overs.
Lewis Gregory had given Somerset some hope by removing Dean Elgar and Tom Westley inside the first six overs before taking the catch in the deep to end Paul Walter’s tone-setting innings. Walter, a first-innings centurion, had amassed 30 from 31 balls when he departed with 39 runs still required.
The Somerset captain was fired up in the face of desperate odds against and caused jitters in the Essex ranks as he repeatedly beat the outside edge of the bat. He bowled through unchanged and was rewarded with figures of 2-43 from his nine overs.
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For two-and-a-half days it looked like the game would peter out into a tame draw with handshakes accepted in mid-afternoon with the curtain brought down on a forgettable Championship season for both sides. However, that was before Jamie Porter initiated a collapse of monumental proportions amid the gloom of a day-three afternoon and early evening.
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Essex had subsided themselves earlier in the day from an overnight 295-2 to 438 all out and a nominal lead of five runs. But in 34 overs reminiscent of some of Essex’s glory years of the recent past, they rolled Somerset over for 99 with Porter taking 4-18 and falling just one wicket short of another 50-wicket haul for the season.
Essex had already confirmed their Division One survival during this final match while Somerset had settled for the no-man’s land of mid-table. Three successive wins in May had even suggested a title challenge that did not materialise.
However, with all day to knock off the runs, a modicum of tension was introduced in only the second over. Having put on 277 for the first wicket in the first innings, the opening partnership lasted just seven balls. Elga departed for a golden duck, rapped conclusively on his front pad by Gregory without getting anywhere near the ball.
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Westley withstood the rest of a torrid over from Gregory but got off the mark with a characteristic drive through midwicket for four off Craig Overton. He followed that with an emphatic pull through midwicket off Gregory for a second boundary before he, too, fell to the same bowler.
After putting on a run-a-ball 28 with Walter, Westley nibbled at one outside off-stump and wicketkeeper James Rew dived in front of first slip to claim the catch.
Walter had been busy turning twos into threes to the extent that Essex reached fifty from just nine overs when Charlie Allison walked down the pitch and smashed Overton through extra over for four.
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Overton had been relatively expensive, his five overs costing 25, but his replacement Ball struck with his first ball when Walter went for a big heave and paid the price.
Allison made sure the target came down quickly and deposited Ball over long leg for six to take Essex within two runs of the target and then repeated the act to complete the victory.
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