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Norwell leads the way at Chelmsford

3 May 2015

Inspired by Liam Norwell, Gloucestershire took command of their County Championship Division Two clash against second in the table Essex at Chelmsford.

He produced a devastating spell of seam bowling to capture four wickets in 17  balls at a cost of two runs, as the home side were bowled out for 159  and then watched his side  reach the close on 77 without loss  in reply.

Yet is seemed Essex were on their  way to a decent  total after they had been put into bat  as openers Nick Browne  and Jaik Mickleburgh composed a half-century  stand following a morning session washed out by rain.

Mickleburgh produced several well-timed drives before the more circumspect  Browne  gloved a leg-side delivery  from Craig Miles  and was caught behind for 19 to end a stand worth 61 runs.

Then Norwell made his dramatic impact to fully vindicate the decision of Gloucestershire  captain Geraint Jones to insert his opponents.

Underlining the value of line and length and getting  the ball to lift  awkwardly  and swing, Norwell had  soon reduced Essex to 82 for 5.

He began by bowling Mickleburgh off his pads for 42, the top-score of the innings. He followed that  with two wickets in an over removing Dan Lawrence, a 17 year-old who scored a century against Surrey  last week for 6 and James Foster  for a single.

Both fell to smart catches by Chris Dent at second slip and soon afterwards, Norwell got rid of Jesse Ryder  as the New Zealander  chased a delivery wide of off-stump.

David Payne also picked  up two wickets in an over, those of Kishen Velani and Graham Napier, as the innings fell apart.

In the end, it was only a belligerent  wag of the tail  that enabled Essex  to achieve  some semblance  of respectability with the last two wickets adding a welcome 53 runs

Adeel Malik, a leg-spinner preferred to the dropped Monty Panesar and on a three-month contract, marked his debut with 25 made from 23 deliveries. That included an on-side drive into the stand  off Payne, before the fast bowler  breached his defenses to gain revenge.

David Masters weighed in with 26  that included   five fours before Matt  Taylor  trapped him leg before.

As  the sun came out and the pitch eased, Will Tavare  and Dent  warmed to their task  of making sure the efforts of Norwell and Payne, who finished with 4-32 and 3-64 respectively were not wasted.

Tavare reached the close on 32 with Dent just 8 runs short of a half-century to go with his three catches - his safe hands having also accounted for Velani.

Essex Head coach Paul Grayson said: “It was a good toss to win and we would have put Gloucestershire in if we had won it. We had a good first 40 minutes but then things went wrong.

“We need to get wickets early tomorrow if possible but there is still a lot of cricket left in this game and we’ve had many good sessions in the last few games we’ve played in this competition and now we’ll need the squad to show their character again. Today was just one  bad day for us.”

England fast bowling scout Geoff Arnold gave his verdict on Norwell’s performance. "He maintained a good line and hit the deck hard to get deliveries  to leave and cause the batsmen problems,” he said.

“He fully deserved the wickets on a pitch which gave him  help. Having said that, some of the Essex batsmen did not cover themselves with glory with some of the shots they played.”

Liam Norwell is sponsored by Mr Michael Abbott

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