Tom Craddock, who is recalled to the Essex side for the match at Northamptonshire
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
9:00 AM
ESSEX have named their side in advance of the LV= County Championship match against Northamptonshire, starting today at Wantage Road, and the side includes Ryan ten Doeschate who will make his first appearance in the competition this season.
The 31-year-old has been playing in the IPL for winners Kolkata Knight Riders and head coach Paul Grayson is naturally delighted to have the all-rounder back in the line-up.
“It’s good to have Tendo back, he’s a good experienced cricketer and he’s looking forward to playing four-day cricket again,” Grayson said.
“Last year, when he came back to us, he had been playing a lot of cricket around the world and looked a bit tired but this time, he’s looking fresh.”
Alviro Petersen has returned to South Africa and Essex will go into the match without an overseas player although they do have Ravi Bopara back who missed the defeat to Derbyshire in the previous Championship match because of injury. Tom Craddock also comes into the side with the leg-spinner replacing pace man Tymal Mills.
Although Essex have only one Championship win to their name thus far in 2012, Grayson believes that his side can still have a say in the push for promotion.
“We are still in with a chance in Championship cricket, there are nine games to go and if you get back-to-back wins in four-day cricket, you can soon shoot up the table,” he said.
“We had a very encouraging win against Gloucestershire Gladiators on Monday in the Clydesdale Bank 40 which is just what we needed. I thought that we bowled really well for 35 overs and although they got a few runs at the end of their innings when we didn’t quite get our yorkers right and we need to look at our death bowling, our performance overall with the ball was pleasing.
“Then Ravi batted beautifully and I thought that Tom Westley’s innings was superb and he’ll take a huge amount of confidence from that as well. They made the run-chase comfortable and helped us to a comfortable first win in that competition.”
The match between Essex and Northamptonshire earlier in the season at Chelmsford fell victim to the weather when the only play possible came on day two of the four days and then only 27 overs were sent down. In that time, Essex had reached 54 for six wickets with Mark Pettini was the only batsman to reach double figures.
Of the other 167 County Championship contests between the two counties, Essex have won 53 matches and lost 42 whilst one game finished as a tie.
Essex: J Foster (wkt, capt), M Pettini, T Westley, O Shah, R Bopara, B Foakes, R ten Doeschate, G Napier, D Masters, C Willoughby, T Craddock.
Source: www.eadt.co.uk
Battling Bopara steadies Essex - ECB
Ravi Bopara's unbeaten half-century allowed Essex to recover from a shaky start on a rain-affected first day of their LV= County Championship Division Two clash at Northamptonshire.
Essex were reduced to 57 for four just before lunch but England batsman Bopara's 65 not out off 129 balls, including 12 fours, helped the visitors to move on to 138 without further loss before rain brought about an early close at Wantage Road.
Northants paceman David Willey returned 2-23 as the hosts' attack dominated early on, with former Sri Lanka seamer Chaminda Vaas also claiming a wicket.
Essex won the toss and chose to bat but they lost Tom Westley for 12 in the fourth over when he edged Vaas to James Middlebrook, who took a simple catch at second slip.
Ravi Bopara came to Essex's rescue as his unbeaten 65 saw them recover from the loss of four cheap wickets against Northants
Ex-England batsman Owais Shah then faced just one ball before he was run out by a direct hit from Ben Howgego at point after he tried to run a quick single off Vaas.
The visitors' morning then took another turn for the worse when Mark Pettini was judged to have edged Willey to Northants wicketkeeper David Murphy after making 32.
Willey struck again in the penultimate over of the morning when his delivery crashed into Ben Foakes' off stump to dismiss the youngster for a seven-ball duck.
Essex struggled to 62 for four at lunch, during which the heavens opened meaning the start of the afternoon session was delayed by an hour and a half and 16 overs were lost.
In the second over after play restarted, Essex captain James Foster was given a scare before he opened his account when he edged Jack Brooks, only for Kyle Coetzer to put down a difficult chance at third slip
Bopara, who took 67 balls just to reach double figures, went on to complete a half-century off 112 deliveries with a straight four off Lee Daggett.
But he was also given a second chance after being dropped on 60 by Murphy off the same bowler before rain forced the players off again.
Umpires Trevor Jesty and Tim Robinson came onto the field half an hour later for an inspection but the skies began to darken again and a heavy downpour meant play was officially called off at 5:20pm.
Bopara will be looking to complete his second century of the week when play resumes tomorrow, with Foster striving to add to his unbeaten 25 off 71 deliveries.
Source: www.ecb.co.uk
No comments:
Post a Comment