Northamptonshire v Essex - Final report

Essex beat Northamptonshire by 9 wickets with 6.4 overs to spare reaching 199-1 after the home side had reached a woefully inadequate 198-9 wickets from their 40 overs.

 

Ravi Bopara continued to show his rich vein of form by responding to his questionable omission from next week’s Test squad by scoring an unbeaten 88 to follow up the two centuries he made in last week’s championship match with Yorkshire.

 

He faced 89 balls hitting 10 boundaries of which two cleared the ropes by some way in a one0day innings oozing class.  

 

In his last 7 innings for the county in all competitions, Bopara has aggregated 542 runs that includes three centuries (105 not out, 142 and 102, plus this 88 not out and another half-century to average 108.40  

 

The 25 year-old right-hander and Mark Pettini paved the way for the Eagles victory with an opening partnership of 99 of which the latter had provided 58 when he was caught at backward point by former Essex batsman Stephen Peters off the bowling of Elton Chigumbura.

 

The pair had taken only 9.2 overs to bring up the fifty stand using their feet to pierce the field and collecting singles and quickly scampered two’s regularly. By the time they were parted, 13 fours and a six had been struck with Pettini having contributed the maximum blow plus eight fours.

 

Bopara then took centre-stage straight-driving the ball high into the stands above mid-on to reach his fifty having faced 58 balls that also included 8 fours before launching another 6 over wide mid-on.

 

This time, the ball went out of the ground and on its way to Wellingborough as the total reached 137-1 with England’s overlooked richly talented batsman 59 not out.

 

Neither was new partner Grant Flower proving a slouch as he contributed 23 from 31 balls joining Bopara in a half-century stand for the second wicket as Essex closed in an a comprehensive and one-sided victory.

 

With 10 overs remaining, the Eagles needed just a further 21 runs with nine wickets intact  and they continued to pick off the runs at will with 16 coming from the next three overs.

 

A miserable afternoon for the Steelbacks concluded when Chiguimbura started over 33 with a front foot no ball, Flower taking a couple of runs from the first legitimate delivery of the over before following-up with the winning single to reach 35 not out.  

 

The win against the bottom of the table side moves Essex into second place in their CB40 division and in good heart ahead of the twenty20 quarter-final tie with Lancashire at the Ford county Ground on Tuesday night.