Essex v Lancashire - Final report
Jul 27 2010
All roads from Essex will lead to the Rose Bowl on August 14th when the Eagles take their place at Finals Day for the third time in their history and they will meet Hampshire in the semi-final.
Essex beat Lancashire by 8 wickets in front of another full house at the Ford County Ground where Mark Pettini and Matt Walker were the heroes for the home side with a second wicket partnership of 147 in 15 overs to put their side in the driving seat.
The home side had to overcome the loss of Ravi Bopara for 4 in the third over with only 17 runs on the board. Replying to a formidable 183-6, Essex got home with 5 deliveries to spare.
Pettini struck 81 from 56 balls with the help of 7 fours and one six whilst Walker plundered four 6’s amongst his 8 boundaries in making an unbeaten 74 from 49 deliveries.
Pettini did enjoy one moment of good fortune when he had scored 70 out of 132 when he was dropped by Tom Smith off the bowling of left-arm slow bowler Gary Keedy but the opener deserved his luck having dictated the pace from the start of the innings.
He and Walker reached a 50 runs stand in less than 6 overs whilst the century partnership was hoisted after 12 overs as the pursuit of the target was superbly paced.
It was a superb exhibition of controlled aggression by the pair to take Essex to glory as they matched the testing run rate set by the Lightning throughout their innings.
The partnership was only broken when Sajid Mahmood bowled Pettini with the last ball of the 18th over, but it only heralded the arrival of skipper James Foster to smash Glen Chapple for three successive fours whilst scoring 16 in only five balls.
It all added up to a miserable night for Lancashire because they were left reflecting on a third successive quarter-final defeat in the competition whilst the Eagles look forward to making it third time lucky on Finals Day having lost in the semi-finals on their two previous appearances
To add to Lancashire’s their woes, Stephen Moore is likely to be out of action for some time. he finished up visiting hospital after dislocating his shoulder when diving at deep square leg in a vain attempt to cut off one of Walker’s boundaries.
