Essex CC2 @ Taunton 25 May (7 months to Christmas) 2004

Last week seems to not have been the last fling of a over the hill 'veteran' if today's performance by Andy Caddick is anything to go by!!

His morning consisted of giving the Essex batsmen cause to think they'd made the wrong decision to bat after winning the toss.  His 4 for 28 before lunch was Caddick of old and very welcome to the Taunton crowd.  The problem was that he had the luck and the venom while his compadres certainly didn't have the luck and missed the fourth seamer.  Keith Parsons was available but that doesn't make up for Aaron Laraman who was in a rich vein of form before his side-strain.  He was training today but is still obviously not match fit.

Nixon took two wickets and people say Jefferson didn't even see the one that skittled him.  But he is only doing that at the moment - the odd really fast delivery takes someone out but not often enough.  Richard Johnson is becoming something of an enigma in this side.  He seems to be fully fit, he seems to be bowling easliy and he seems to be going past the bat on regular occasions.  But he isn't taking wickets at the rate we have come to expect.  He was wicketless again today but seemed to be causing the batsmen trouble.  Blackwell, Burns and KP were also used without success on the stump front.

It was Caddick who kept us in it. He removed 6 of the Essex order, including Flower and Habib and he looked llike the man of old with the ball in his hand and that has to be good for us!  They got to 400 - maybe 50 to 70 more than we would have liked.  Middlebrook looked in form and there were some stubborn partnerships, hard grinding cricket for the first day of four.

And it didn't end well. They declared with 5 and a half overs of the day left and put us in for 3.  Peter Bowler just didn't seem to come out with the rest of the guys.  He was there but Napier was steaming in and he simply wasn't at the start!  He waved and missed at a couple - big appeals for no real reason and then flicked one to the slips and fell to a low excellent catch from Flower.  Peter stood there for a moment, shook his head and wandered off in a daze...it was very strange.  He just seemed to have been caught napping by the declaration and wasn't really with it at all.  Neil Edwards  looked more part of it all and he finished the day with Jamie Cox.

It's at an interesting stage, we need to get our heads down tomorrow and keep ourselves in this one.

Day 2

But Neil isn't making the runs at the moment and his place is starting to have a question mark over it.  He needs a significant score soon or his name will be up when they're looking for a place for Francis J.  He went early on Day 2 and we had to look for a fighting 86 from Cox with a little help from Burns and a whole lot of help from the tail end bowlers to get us through to a total. 

At 198 for 8 the follow on looked definite.  Enter Richard of the swarthy complexion!  Cox had gone, nothing else was really there...oh except Andrew of the Caddick.  93 runs, 3 sixes and 8 fours later (plus a lot of running) we were safe, only about a hundred behind and Johnno had 58 to his name.

Caddy carried on with Nixon and after they had added 43 and the Cadman had gone past his 50 to 53 we finished on 339 (61 behind) and the last three men had added 141 to the meagre score. Good stuff but we were still on the whip end of a beating!  We needed early wickets and lots of them!

And it looked promising.  Nixon M came in and took out Cook for 10 and then, with the rocket ball that seems to be his main strike delivery this season, Jefferson for 14.  We had them going into Day 3 on 29 for 2.

...and on to Day 3

 It sort of ended there and the pitch seemed to lose all support for the bowlers.  They stuck at it and tried everything but the wickets simply did not come.  Blackwell fooled Grayson at 100 and did the same to Habib at 150 but that put their lead over 200 and they were just not going fast enough.  Andy Flower didn't go until he had added 179 with England hopeful James Foster.  Johnson looked really depressed when the sides left at tea - wandering off with Caddick's arm around his shoulders. He isn't having luck but he has spells when he doesn't look threatening at all.  We needed a fourth seamer.

After tea we put the brakes on a little.  Middlebrook and Napier went quite cheaply but Foster was still there and Grayson seemed to be in no hurry to declare - we expected it to come at 15 overs,  and again when they reached 450 but he seemed to be holding out for his keeper to hit 100.  McLean did his best to scotch this plan with three Exocets in three overs.  It seems the ball wasn't swinging so he decided to just bowl straight.  No-one told the Essex men and they probably wouldn't have seen them anyway.

Clarke and Brant went to crashing stumps and flying bails one side of the Foster ton and when they thought they'd get a few more, they made the mistake of leaving McCoubrey at the McLean end and it all ended one ball later!  413 all out and we needed 475 to win at a run rate of 4.673 in 102 overs.  No chance!  One day to bat out for the draw seemed the more likely scenario although Bowler and Edwards went off on one and had added 23 by the end of play off 5.

Day 4

It was never really on and the die was cast when Edwards followed one from Brant at 44 and then Cox tried for two when there was only one and was run out with the score on 56.  The objective became, stick it out between the rain. Don't try anything rash and bat until 5:30.

Bowler seemed up for this but some of the others didn't seem so certain about this plan.  Hildreth made a valuable 41 but others, Burns, Blackwell and especially Parsons who got out to an awful shot seemed determined to throw the game to Essex.

But this situation was asking for Rob Turner and he duly obliged, partnering Mr Bowler past his third hundred of the season to 138 while hitting a solid 20 off 67 balls himself.  Grayson accepted he was getting nowhere and called it a day with 7 overs to go.

A solid draw.  Some poor shot selection by the middle order in both innings. Spirited defence by the tail in the first and thank God for Bowler in the second.  Some scary pace from McLean and his best performance of the season with 5 for 87 in the second. Some mean and dangerouse spells from Caddick who bowled 53 overs in this game and looks to be back in some form.  We miss Laraman - it seems that Simon Francis was not injured so has he lost form?  We need Johnson to fire with the ball as well as the bat.

We look like we can hold our own in these games - a real improvement of the collapse ridden front five of 2003.  But can we add that to 20 wickets and take some big points?  Well we go up a notch at Swansea next week so now's the time. 

View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon