County Championship 2023. Essex v Somerset. 11^th,12^th, 14^th and 15^th June. Chelmsford.

Essex. N.L.J. Browne, Sir A.N. Cook, T. Westley (c), P.I. Walter, M.J.J. Critchley, B.M.J. Allison, F.I.N. Khushi, S.R. Harmer, W.E.L. Buttleman (w), S.J. Cook, J.A. Porter.

Somerset. S.R. Dickson, T.A. Lammonby, T.B. Abell (c), G.A. Bartlett, T. Kohler-Cadmore, J.E.K. Rew (w), K.L. Aldridge, C. Overton, M.J. Henry, J.H. Davey, S. Bashir.

Overnight. Essex 462 and 170 for 7 dec. Somerset 167 and 172 for 4. Somerset need 294 more runs to win with six second innings wickets standing.

Final day 13th June – A day of inevitability

The day began with the crowd standing motionless and silent for one minute. The teams and support staff stood in formal lines in front of the Pavilion. The silence, which was total, was in remembrance of three people murdered in Nottingham in an act of terrorism the previous day. Two were students, one with connections to Somerset CCC and one with previous connections with Essex CCC. It had been a chilling incident and people were visibly moved. The team flags remained at half-mast throughout the day to honour those who had died.

The silence had come while I was in mid walk to my seat and I stood where I was when it was called, behind the Tom Pearce Stand. As I completed my walk, Tom Abell turned Simon Harmer, who had opened the bowling from the River End, behind square for four. It began a partnership with James Rew who had replaced Tom Kohler-Cadmore, after what became the final ball of the pervious day. Both Rew and Abell are capable of batting defensively for long periods and it looked as if they were trying to settle in for the long haul, although, if a ball was there to be hit, it went to the boundary.

“Shot!” someone said as Abell drove Jamie Porter, who had opened from the Hayes Close End, through the covers for four. It was as good a cover drive as you will see, played in that truncated classical style of Abell’s. Harmer meanwhile was becoming something of a handful with the pitch in its fourth day. His duel with Abell was intriguing to watch. He beat him twice in two balls, once finding the edge with Abell taking two runs before the ball was gathered in. To the third ball, Abell, came down the pitch, using his feet to defend. In Harmer’s next over, Rew also edged for two, and survival looked a precarious business. In Harmer’s next over, Abell moved to attack, middling the ball off an open face to send it through backward point for four. Rew joined him with a racing straight drive before stretching every sinew in his body to come forward in defence. Abell stretched as far in defending Harmer’s next over as an almighty tussle between bat and ball held the crowd transfixed as the quiet of the previous evening returned and strings of balls were defended with a careful intensity or nudged for singles between the boundaries. There would be no room for half measures it seemed, in attack or defence, and with over five hours still to play Somerset were still short of 200.

They reached 200 in Harmer’s next over as Somerset began to find their feet, at least as much as anyone does against Harmer on a helpful Chelmsford pitch. Now Abell, showing some positive intent, skipped down the pitch and drove him emphatically through extra cover to the boundary near the main scoreboard, only to be beaten by bounce before the over was out. Somerset were progressing, but the ground beneath their feet was not secure. A ball to Rew had kept low, and Abell was rushed into going back on his stumps by another. With Matthew Critchley now bowling from the Hayes Close End, there was no respite from the turning ball, although Rew came down the pitch and lofted him over mid-off for four. “Oh, come on!” said an Essex supporter, expecting more from Critchley, and perhaps seeing the runs required by Somerset falling towards 250.

Whatever happened at Critchley’s end however, Harmer was still bowling against a 250-run lead and was unrelenting. Whatever treatment a delivery received, he would turn on his heels, step purposefully back to his mark, come into the wicket again and threaten the neighbourhood off stump as if the ball were on a string. Abell though kept going, playing and missing and being beaten on occasion but cutting fine and driving through the onside to the Felsted Stand for two more fours. At the Hayes Close End, the left arm medium pace of Paul Walter replaced Critchley’s leg spin resulting in a huge appeal for leg before wicket against Rew, and an umpire who showed no reaction at all.

With the Essex lead falling below 250, Sam Cook’s pace replaced Walter and Rew drove him through midwicket to the Felsted Stand for four before opening the face to Critchley, who had replaced Harmer, to bring Somerset’s target down to 238. “You never know,” some of the few Somerset supporters who had stayed on for the final day must have begun thinking. The looks on the faces of Essex supporters suggested they feared the thought, improbable though a Somerset victory, or a draw, was. On the field, there was no doubting Essex’s belief. This was familiar territory for them at Chelmsford, and they had bowled 20 overs in the first hour in pursuit of another victory.

With 81 overs gone in the innings, and Somerset’s final morning progress held to two and a half runs an over despite the batters’ occasional attacking strokes, Sam Cook took the new ball. To his second ball Abell pushed forward in defence and edged to Buttleman behind the stumps. It was as innocuous looking a dismissal as you will see, but the roar which went up from the smallest crowd of the match was deafening in the confines of the Felsted Stand, the import of Abell’s wicket being lost on no one. Somerset 228 for 5. Abell 83 in all but four hours. Essex lead 237. Cook celebrated as if he had won the match. He had not won the match, but, with one end now open, he had removed Somerset’s last realistic hope of saving it. As if to emphasise the point, to Cook’s next ball, Kasey Aldridge, on the back foot, was late coming down on a full ball which kept low and was bowled. 228 for 6.

Craig Overton and Rew, trying to shore up a lost cause, defended safely enough it seemed but when Rew attempted to drive Harmer, the ball flew off the edge between first and second slip. Alistair Cook, at first slip, took off, dived full to his left and caught the ball behind second slip. Somerset 232 for 7. Rew 28 in an hour and a half an indication of Somerset’s fight before the loss of Abell. The crowd, once the cheer and the applause for Cook’s catch and Rew’s wicket had died down was now in full chatter mode with everything to celebrate and nothing to fear. As the match slid to its, now inevitable, conclusion, there were fours from Overton, Josh Davey and Shoaib Bashir, an incongruous flurry of byes and leg byes, the ball twice reaching the boundary as Harmer beat Buttleman as well as the bat.

As to the final three wickets, with lunch eventually delayed by half an hour, Overton was brilliantly caught at backward short leg for five by Critchley diving full length after the ball and catching it before it flew beyond his reach. “What a catch,” one Essex supporter said, and it was. The slip catching in this match, on both sides, had been exceptional. Henry was caught off a thin inside edge for three by Buttleman as he was pushed back by Porter. And finally, Davey was caught by Buttleman for 14 edging a ball from Porter which perhaps cut in a fraction. Essex had won by 196 runs. There was little to choose between the sides on the second and third days, but Essex’s total dominance on the first day had effectively damaged Somerset’s match beyond repair and, once Abell was out, the final day had an inevitability about it. An inevitability that had probably been present since the first evening, whatever the hopes and fears of the two sets of supporters.

Result. Essex 462 for 9 dec ((A.N. Cook 128, M.J.J. Critchley 121, F.I.N. Khushi 56*, J.H. Davey 3-88) and 170 for 7 dec (M.J.J. Critchley 52, K.A. Aldridge 4-35). Somerset 167 (S.R. Dickson 82*, S.R. Harmer 5-64, J.A. Porter 3-38) and 269 (T.B. Abell 83, T.A. Lammonby 59, J.A. Porter 3-31, S.R. Harmer 3-114). Essex won by 196 runs. Essex 22 points. Somerset 2 points.