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Bristol bogey continues as Westley steers Essex home

23 June 2015

Another tale of what might have been. Martin Guptill against Derbyshire, Denly and Northeast against Kent, and Kyle Jarvis against Lancashire. This time is was the rain gods which tilted the match towards Essex on the second day, enabling them to bowl in conditions which set up this five wicket win.

It was Gloucestershire's fourth home Championship game of the season, and the fourth defeat. In the end Essex were left to chase 114. If only it had been 50 runs more....

Here Head Coach Richard Dawson's thoughts here :

At the start of play, Gloucestershire were on the back foot, 77 runs behind and with three second innings wickets already gone. The aim of Michael Klinger and Ian Cockbain would have been to occupy the crease so the first ball of the day certainly wasn't in the plan. Cockbain had kept Klinger company for 90 minutes on Monday evening, but he let Jamie Porter's first delivery go - only to see it rattle his off stump.

It left Geraint Jones and Klinger to try and erase the deficit, and with attacking fields there were enough gaps to keep the scoreboard ticking. Klinger in particular played some punchy drives too, although he did survive a strong lbw appeal in Napier's first over.

With a new ball likely to be due just after lunch, Essex captain James Foster wasn't going to give his bowlers long spells, but a series of changes brought no other reward until Klinger and Jones had added 69, and Klinger had clipped Ryder through mid wicket to reach his second Championship century of the season off 185 balls with 13 fours.

It was therefore something of a surprise that he should perish against the gentle medium pace of Ryan Ten Doeschate, who had taken only two wickets in Championship cricket this season. To his credit, Ten Doeschate found a near perfect length to catch Klinger in two minds, finding the edge of the bat and Foster gleefully took a critical catch.

At that stage Gloucestershire were still eight runs behind, and things took a further turn for the worse in the last ten minutes before lunch.

It's hard to know why Jones, having reached 37, chose to attack slow left arm spinner Aron Nijjar in his first over. Using his feet to go down the pitch. he tried to loft the ball over mid-on, only to find Graham Napier in position to take a tumbling catch.

Nijjar was taken off straight away to give Napier the last over before the break, and the long serving all rounder nipped out Jack Taylor, trapping him lbw for five. The lead was only 24 runs as the players headed for the pavilion.

With such a small advantage and the new ball due, Gloucestershire's batting in the afternoon will have merely added to the frustration of losing Jones and Taylor in quick succession.

Fuller soon fell to a routine catch by Foster off Ryder, but Miles joined Howell and showed again that his batting has some potential. After a first ball dismissal in the first innings, he hung around to add 69 with the tail ender's blend of good fortune mixed with some genuine strokes.

He'd gone to 37 and just collected a seventh boundary behind point when he misjudged the length of a delivery from Ryder and chipped it to Salisbury at cover.

From there Howell had licence to throw the bat. He lofted Ryder over long on for six and was within two runs of his first Championship fifty of the season when he was last out, caught at deep extra cover by Browne off Porter. Gloucestershire's second innings of 316 had almost matched Essex's first innings, but the visitors were only left to chase 114 to win with 43 overs remaining on the day.

With a modest total to defend, all Gloucestershire could do was attack, and James Fuller's opening spell removed England captain Alistair Cook - caught first ball by Chris Dent at second slip - and fellow opener Browne, who played a loose drive and was caught behind. When Miles, in his seventh over, had Bopara also caught at the wicket 89 runs were still required for victory.

Norwell was into the attack by this point and he soon had Ten Doeschate pinned in his crease. Umpire Lloyds sent him on his way and the scoreboard read 26-4 . The match was far from over.

Thereafter Tom Westley was the immoveable object. He had played sensibly while those around him came and went, and with James Foster promoted to number six, the pair added 47 until Fuller got the ninth lbw decision of the match to remove Foster for 14 with 41 runs needed.

It was left to Ryder to keep Westley company both to his own half century and to Essex's victory target. As Richard Dawson admitted afterwards, it was another match where two hours of cricket - in this case the opening overs of Gloucestershire's first innings - had decided the outcome.

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