v Essex C&G @ Taunton 14 May 2006

Scorecard

With defeat in the four day version, can we expect any changes in the one day squad?  It is doubtful unless Ian Blackwell and Charl Willoughby become available.  Gareth Andrew may return after his performance in the seconds but Peter Trego is looking for a one day run out after an excellent supporting maiden Championship century just two days ago.  Matt has some thinking to do.

As usual, let's start with those who will play;

Wood, Gazzard (probably opening), White, Hildreth (after confidence building performances in both innings), Parsons (couldn't leave him out could they), Caddick (if fit).  Suppiah should continue his number 3/4 role and Wes Durston impressed in the second innings.  Johnson will start unless Willoughby is available which would give the captain an option to rest him or AC

There is then a place for Peter Trego - did well with the bat, little with the ball - may not play if Durston does.  He may lose out to Andrew who has yet to show batting prowess in the firsts but promises more one day wicket action.  Cullen will probably not see action today because we have spin options without him and little went for him during the longer game - may be a bit early for him yet.  Blackwell would make things awkward but he willplay if fit.  The official site suggests that his appearance is probably a Hampshire headache rather than one tomorrow.

Probable side then?

Wood, Gazzard, Suppiah, White, Hildreth, Parsons, Durston, Andrew, Johnson, Caddick, Willoughby.

Trego may appear if any of the trio are doubtful and there is an outside chance of Cullen if the pitch suggests "spin heaven".  Anything else would be a bit of a surprise.

Essex bat down to their boots and have a number of players who will feel confident batting on the Taunton 22.  The Flower boys and Irani did well.  The Essex 'Mafia' Pettini and Palladino may have a day in them and Bopra is dangerous (and loud) with the ball or the bat.  Goughie may even make an appearance it seems.  Hope so, the only times I've seen him at Taunton he has been well and truly murdered!!

The game starts at 10:45.  All things going to plan and technology working, I will be updating on the start about 12:00 and then trying to update the front page at the changeover and as soon after the match as electricity allows.  As always, if you are there come and say hello and if you are not then the boards are open to let you vent your spleen.  Here's to a 4 to 1 average in the C&G by about 6:30!!

10:35

and the team news is out on a sunny Sunday morning in deepest darkest Somerset. We go in with;

Wood, Suppiah, Parsons K, Hildreth, White, Durston, Gazzard, Caddick, Johnson, Willoughby, Andrew with poor old Trigger relegated to drinks duty again. Essex have elected to field and have brought in "Big Darren" (not Venness) to scare us. It's warm and dry here - big scores in the offing, hopefully for us!

Carl Gazzard opens with his captain against Palladino and the young boy Gough. The Essex boys are in some wonderful colour concoction of Dark Blue trousers with Gold, Red and Blue tops. Darren reckons they are like his "Come Dancing" outfits. 10 for 1 after 2 overs and 29 after 4 as the pitch shows its character for the day

It's all going well as we move into the 6th at which point, with Wood going strong and 40 up. Gazzard skies one and gives his wicket away! 40 for 1 at 6.1.  The problem with having CG in as a pinch is what happens when Matt is seeing it like a football from the off and the 'pinch' hitter role isn't necessary?  Carl does not seem to be able to adapt and turn into a support player for his captain.  He still seems obssessed with smashing the leather off the thing!  Soomeone suggested that maybe this would be a role for the unlucky Peter Trego to fulfill as he does seem to have two possible ways of playing and let Carl come in and smash away to his heart's content later in the innings when the score needs pushing along.

Support does come in in the form of Arul Suppiah and we look to rebuild once again when someone is in and moving the ball about. Goughie lasts about 3 overs and then is replaced by Bopra and seems to be having another interesting session at Taunton where he never does particularly well. Woody is in real form though, timing the ball well and hitting the boards regularly. The 50 comes up in 7.5 overs and we are going along at 6.6 by the 10th.

After going to an excellent 50 with a sweetly struck on drive, Matt looks in real form. Unfortunately he gets one that rears and sort of part hooks it to the infield where he is caught by Pettini. 2 balls into the 12th and we are 80 for 2. ( Matt's half ton came off 40 balls with 9 fours)

Out comes White "sans helmet" to take the innings on but Bopara has other ideas applying the brakes and although the 100 arrives in the 16th with a slow boundary to Arul , the fours have dried up and we only get to 113 by the 20th. White tries to push it on but Irani increases the pressure with his slow attack which appears in the 22nd. Eventually the frustration takes its toll as Arul attempts to sweep in the 26th and gloves it to Foster - 141 for 3.

Now we throw the game away. First White tries to clear the River stand and is caught in the deep at 149. Why is our premier strike player giving it the long handle halfway through the innings when the obvious thing to do is marshall the incoming batsmen to a defendable total?  Then James Hildreth calls through a very iffy single and continues to run as Phillips sharply fields and sends him on his way. 5 down and still under 150. Keith Parsons runs himself out after starting a bit of a revival (don't run until it actually passes the fielder Keith ) and Wes is LBW, not moving his feet, at 174. This time the middle are messing up the score as Gareth Andrew also plays all around a Flower straight one and departs for 3. 174 for 8, 15 overs to go and Caddick and Johnson are expected to save this game. Maybe we can push it to 200!!!!

When Johnno is caught and bowled for 2 at 184 it is Charl Willoughby who has to salvage some kind of pride from this second half debacle(along with Caddy of course). There are 10 overs and a bit to go and all the last two guys can do really is nurdle as many as possible and hope they don't get a good 'un. In fact Charl absolutely smashes one back past Middlebrook....who miraculously holds onto it and we go down in less than 40 overs for 188.

Basic cricket is something we need to learn. You don't smash the ball all over the place when you don't need to and the ball is not there to hit. You don't take quick runs when you've just hit the ball off the strip to a fielder. You don't call for quick singles when you are re-building an innings after the aforesaid errors. You adapt and stabalise and reset the foundations so that you are still in at the end of 50 overs with a score to defend. We didn't and we need a gift from above to get anything out of the second half of this one. I'll be home in time to pick my daughter up. Oh dear Oh dear!

Caddick takes on Grant Flower while Charl has a go at Irani. Both give them trouble but at less than 4 an over there is no leeway at all and we need early and then regular wickets. Grant gives the faithfull hope when he whips one to our best fielder - Suppiah - and he keeps hold. We have an early breakthrough and possibly something to build on. But Caddick has a mare of a 5th over, going for 3 wides and a 'free hit' four in a 9 baller. As a result, after 7, Johnson takes over at the OP but is dispatched to the boundary with his first ball and his last and while Willoughby wheels away at the River they go to 5.3 an over off 10 (less than us - little victories). We bring on Gareth for the 11th but although he is hostile, they still keep the scoreboard moving and send the odd ball to the boards.

Eventually the OP rot is stopped by Arul who produces a maiden for the 15th and a tight 17th. Unfortunately Essex are still progressing at over 4 an over and have only one man back in the hutch. It's getting better though as Charl also produces a maiden and with 18 overs down we may take this beyond the 40th.  Arul keeps it going and they pass 80 (where we lost our second and most important) way behind us.

The difference is that Essex are a much more patient unit. If they can't dominate they will keep it ticking and wait you out. We go at it like bulls at a gate and lose wickets in silly attempts to reach the next hundred. They tootle along at just over the rate required and win the game. It's the old bull and young bull story and although Charl bowls 10 for 27, it isn't going to be enough because the rest of the boys can't do the same and take the wickets needed.

At 20 Irani's men are going at a steady 4.5 per over but with 9 wickets in hand are really in very little trouble, the required runs is under 100 and Cameron White is on at the River to keep that end tight. Bopra has passed his captain and looks destined to reach his 50 first, just after to 100 comes up at the end of the 22nd. He does it off the first ball of Suppiah's next over (66 balls and 8 fours) and it is all over bar any shouting anyone wants to do as they start to up the tempo and pepper the boundaries more frequently.

At 114, Irani takes on White and holes out to Suppiah at the River corner but is it anything that can be made into a revival? Well, not in the eyes of Andy Flower who puts Arul into the cemetary at the end of the 25th to push on to 124. Wes takes over at the OP after a decent Aussie over at the other, the crowd is subdued and the only discussion is about the bright yellow pads that Essex finish off their one day ensemble with. 51 runs off 23 overs causes conversations like that I'm afraid. The other point of interest is the fact that Caddick has only bowled 3 overs and is off the field - hope he hasn't picked up something, although he doesn't need to be fit for next Wednesday one would suppose.

The runs required drops below 50 in the 28th and it is worth reporting that our in fielding hasn't dropped off one iota. The team are still determined to make it as hard as possible for the visitors but that doesn't mean a lot because there is little happening except the 4+ an over when they actually need 2. 150 arrives to muted applause - some people don't seem to notice. There is a very decent crowd in today We even get some excitement when a bloke in the River End crowd catches a Bopara six and throws the ball back to chants of 'sign him on'. Gareth Andrew brings pace back at the OP for the 31st. By the 32nd they need less than 1 run an over as the required runs falls from 28 to 19. Will we survive past 35 overs and is it worth trying when we have quite obviously lost this one? Well Wes gets the chance to keep Essex out there when he is switched to the River but a four and a six in the first half suggest even thhis is a lost cause! Bopra goes to a ton (94 balls 3 sixes and 12 fours - that's a 28 ball second 50!) as the runs required drops to 4. Finally they get there to finish the humiliation as Gareth bowls a no ball four balls in. 8 wickets and 17.3 overs to go. Not a lot more to say really. I'm sure posters will have something to add later on the forum.

Basic stuff and it isn't getting better.  We play Championship games like one dayers and one dayers like knockabouts in the school playground.  This was a 320 run pitch and we didn't take time to build a total because we seemed to be blinded by the final total to such an extent that we had no idea how to reach it within the 50 overs.  Only Matt Wood seemed to have the pace of the pitch immediately, few others stayed around to try and work it out.  Those that did threw their wickets away at about the same time as they thought they had it sussed.  Two players lost their wickets Woody who got a ball that jumped and hurried him and Charl Willoughby who hit a bad ball and was caught by a bloke protecting his face from serious harm.  All the others were avoidable.  We may not have won this one but we could have made an attempt at being credible opposition.

The bowlers had nothing to fight with really.  Worrying that Caddick only bowled 3 but understandable as he went for 22 (mostly off the last one).  He didn't stay on the pitch either.  Willoughby was the pick of the bowlers, working hard and keeping to it.  The spinners were on a hiding to nothing, as was Gareth Andrew really.  You can't really guage what they would have done with something to play with but this game was over at the interval I am afraid. 

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