Essex County Cricket Club is on course for its first victory of this County Championship season. Bowler Jamie Porter in his first Test has been magnificent taking 7 wickets…you’ve got to believe it’s coming home! In a thrilling match v Worcestershire, Porter took 3 valuable wickets at critical moments and brought Essex within inches of victory. As the game entered its third day, the odds were heavily stacked against Worcestershire. They were chasing a daunting target of 295 runs to win, and the light was deteriorating quickly.
Worcestershire were set a near-impossible target. As they approached the closing stages of their innings, they were still 110 runs away with four wickets left. The match was abandoned early because of poor light with only five overs to go in the day. As you can imagine, the players played an uphill battle to reach their goal in just five sessions. With 165 overs at stake, the pressure heightened for both teams.
Desperate to steady their innings, Worcestershire sent for Matthew Waite to join D’Oliveira. This sixth-wicket partnership was a display of stoic defence as they both dug in and punished a rare bad ball. D’Oliveira proved his pedigree, most spectacularly slashing down on Kasun Rajitha through gully for four runs as he began to find his feet. He had to build an innings – he faced 143 balls. It was the second longest time spent in the crease in the match, only bettered by Essex’s centurion Paul Walter.
Kashif Ali and Adam Hose scored heavily in their short stay at the crease. They scored another 46 more runs in only a dozen overs, making quick work of well-placed boundaries to uppercut their side’s morale. Kashif especially slayed it. He brought up his fifty before the spinners started on a surface that had had all but given up its battle against good batting.
Jake Libby provided a brief spark for Worcestershire, striking three boundaries before falling to Snater in an unfortunate dismissal, caught midwicket. The Essex bowling attack never let up, with Simon Harmer making his mark almost immediately upon entering the fray. With that, he bowled his eleventh ball of the innings and hit the jackpot. Kashif played a leading edge, waist high, half-hearted shot, straight to slip.
The statistics underscore Essex’s commanding position. They achieved 179 and 317 in those matches. Walter knocked out 104 runs and Thain 54 runs as the team put together a strong performance. In reply, Worcestershire reached 202 and 185-6, with Kashif their leading scorer with 50 runs. Porter’s outstanding figures of 3-36 carried him to 11 wickets in three matches this season. This performance highlights the key role he plays in Essex’s bowling attack.
Essex’s second-innings total was boosted by some fiery lower-order hitting from Shane Snater, which only further extended Essex’s lead. As the game went into its final stages, Worcestershire began to feel the pressure as they continued to chase a challenging target.
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