Defiant Essex Stroll To Victory

In a high-scoring skirmish that produced three century-makers, Essex Eagles comfortably prevailed in the end, with 25 balls to spare in this Royal London One-Day Cup encounter, making surprisingly light work of what appeared to be the imposing target of 291. Indeed when the visitors were reduced to 68 for the loss of four wickets, they could have been forgiven for fearing the worst, but along came a brilliant 209-run partnership to break Yorkshire hearts.

This reverse is probably hard to digest for young Jack Leaning, whose maiden ton for the Tykes ought to have been a match-winning effort for his county. Unfortunately, while Jack the lad constructed his impressive ninety-seven ball century, nobody else in the team managed to reach fifty, in spite of fine cameos from Gale, Hodd, and the unlucky Lyth. However, I am beginning to get hacked off by the under-achieving Kane Williamson. Yorkshire should be able to choose the best cricketers in the world to operate as the overseas pro. KW is not pulling his weight in such a capacity. There have been no big tons in the County Championship and not nearly enough good contributions in limited overs tussles either. Kane needs to justify his inclusion, or else Yorkshire CCC should shop around for an improvement.

Of course it would be easy to point the finger of blame at the dreadfully expensive bowling display by Adil Rashid (and from Leaning and Pyrah), but let us be generous and give credit where it is due. The heroes of the afternoon runs spree were Tom Westley and more particularly Ryan Ten Doeschate who collectively dismantled the hosts' bowling attack. It's kind of weird, but if this fixture had been scheduled for yesterday, it almost certainly would have been rained off, thereby providing the Vikings with the one point that would probably seal qualification from Group A to the last eight. Instead the Vikings (still armed with a healthy run rate) need probably at least one point from their last two group matches. Of course the same was stated a few weeks ago in their Twenty20 campaign, and that ended in heartbreak!

YORKSHIRE versus Essex; at Scarborough; Monday August 11th. Essex won the toss.

YORKSHIRE: 290 for six (Leaning 111*; Masters 4-34)

Essex: 291 for five off 45.5 overs (Ten Doeschate 119, Westley 111*)

Essex won by five wickets. YORKSHIRE 0 points, Essex 2 points.