These are heady days for Essex cricket. After defeating Middlesex by an innings and 34 runs, despite
Brian Poole Youth Jersey losing a day to rain, they sit proudly top of the County Championship by 28 points, after seven years out of the top flight. They have won three in succession and, whisper it, in turning over the title winners so emphatically, have the look of champions themselves. County cricket: Essex thrash Middlesex to go 29 points clear - as it happened! Simon Harmer took his second successive 14-wicket haul as Essex pulled clear at the top of the County Championship Read more Certainly, in Simon Harmer, they have the best spinner in the land and it was his nine for 95 – completing his second successive 14-wicket haul, the 10th time this has been done and first since 1931 – that secured the most dramatic of wins, moments before 9pm, and with a maximum of eight balls remaining in the match. It had been a remarkable performance: he has 47 wickets for the season (is it outrageous to suggest he could get 100?), not to mention his superb catching at second slip and handy lower-order runs. When, 30 minutes into the final day, Middlesex’s stand-in captain Dawid Malan unwisely tried to cut Harmer’s arm ball and was bowled, the die looked cast: this game would not make it to the final session, let alone the final minutes, such was Essex’s dominance. Middlesex were three down and 245 behind, having lost Nick Gubbins to the day’s first ball, edging a turner to slip, and Stevie Eskinazi, too. His dismissal was strange: done by Harmer’s drift, he edged to slip, where Alastair Cook scooped it up to his left, just far enough for Varun Chopra to dive across from leg slip and take the catch. That the game went
http://www.footballpanthershop.com/Chris_Scott_Jersey_Cheapso deep was chiefly down to Nick Compton. Before this innings he had 81 runs in four innings this season, with a high score of 22. His century, his first since last August, was an immaculate exercise in concentration, from the 13 tricky overs he survived with Gubbins on the third evening, to the way he defended, relentlessly, rhythmically, back and across, throughout the final day. He cover-drove well and was not afraid to plonk Harmer down the ground when the ball was there. His 232-ball hundred was surely one of the best of his 26 in first-class cricket. Advertisement He shared 153 with Paul Stirling, who was equally impressive because he played against type. He was dropped at slip on 19 and twice in the 20s at short-leg but there was barely a shot in anger. Eventually he fell to Harmer too, caught at leg-slip. With the new ball Harmer then snared John Simpson at slip, to complete his 10-wicket haul. Saving the game had been left to Compton and he entered the last hour with Ryan Higgins. With every man in close Compton, like many Warwickshire batsmen last week, fell lbw not offering a stroke. Higgins moved the clock 10 minutes further on but was caught at slip, as Middlesex – heckled by a raucous crowd and befuddled by Harmer and, in Toby Roland-Jones’s case, Dan Lawrence – lost four for one. Last to go was Steven Finn, the latest to offer no convincing stroke and Essex’s fielders set off every which way imaginable, toasting a very special win. Derbyshire finally win after 710-day wait The Recap: sign
Authentic Chris Harris Jr Youth Jersey up for the best of the Guardian's sport coverage Read more A sporting declaration from the Hampshire captain, George Bailey, did not quite bring a win against Somerset, who survived eight down at the Ageas Bowl to claim a draw. Bailey set Somerset 161 to win in 31 overs a match blighted by rain, and Somerset went after the win, but continually lost wickets. In another dramatic finish, Josh Davey and Craig Overton survived seven balls to ensure they took eight points from the match to Hampshire’s nine. Essex’s closest challengers, Lancashire, had their game with Warwickshire ruined by rain, and the story was the same for Joe Root in Yorkshire’s match against Surrey; Root sat 12 for two rainy days and presumably did not learn a great deal about facing the pink ball. The same goes for Ben Stokes, as the last two days were rained out between Durham and Worcestershire. Derbyshire secured their first Championship win since 20 July 2015 (that is 710 days, and in some style, as Hamidullah Qadri, a 16-year-old making his debut who was born in Afghanistan is and the first player born this century to play county cricket, took the final wicket, his fifth of the innings, as Glamorgan were beaten by 39 runs. Glamorgan were bowled out for 172 and Qadri, an off-spinner, took five for 60. At Wantage Road, Northamptonshire won an outrageous game against Leicestershire, as
http://www.jetsofficialsonline.com/Calvin_Pryor_Jersey_Cheapthe visitors fell three short of chasing 394. Colin Ackermann scored a century and Mark Cosgrove a swift 76, and Matt Pillans kept Leicestershire’s hopes alive with 55, only to Rory Kleinveldt; Leicestershire were 391 all out. Despite a contrivance, hands were shaken and a draw declared at Hove, where Gloucestershire closed six down 139 short of their target of 351 against Sussex. Kent were lucky to escape Trent Bridge with a draw. When they were bowled out for 265, Nottinghamshire needed just 75 to win, and then the rain came
