I almost don't know where to start for once. We won. Everything in my faithfully-taken notes from this evening pales into insignificance next to that fact. We won for the first time in the defence of our trophy. We won for the first time since Phil Hughes left us. (Our Phil, our Phil, why hast thou forsaken us?)

We won.

The details hardly matter. But I set them down here for posterity, and because this will be a bloody short match report if I don't.

 
We batted first; normally that would be cover-your-eyes time, but Godleman and Dexter played pretty well from the off and laid down a solid if uneventful start. Oh, how we have longed for uneventful. Godleman got out early for very little, and Owais came in to rebuild the momentum with Dexter.

It took a little while for the two of them to get going again, and things petered along for a couple of overs. Clearly the sight of a scoreboard with a) a decent amount of runs and b) only one wicket down was hard even for the team to believe: Morgan sent for his contact lenses about then. Owais and Dexter rotated the strike well and the runs came at a steady if unspectacular rate. Both played some nice shots too, which is a positive in terms of gauging the team's confidence.

Essex fielded surprisingly badly, it has to be said. They cost themselves runs in much the same manner as we did against Hampshire earlier in the week; shots that should have been stopped for two going over the rope for four. Certainly in the middle overs of our innings, they could and should have put the batsmen under more pressure. They failed to do so, and Dexter brought up a well made fifty in decent time. Both he and Shah were well set by this time, and I think the (surprisingly large!) crowd were expecting acceleration.

It didn't really come, I have to say. They pootered along at a respectable eight an over until Owais was out immediately after they'd brought up the hundred partnership. Tyron Henderson was next in, but again, nothing much happened. The runs kept coming along though, mainly thanks to Dexter, who really did play very well. (I have it recorded in my notes that during this period Essex were "fielding like clowns", so I assume it was not so good.)

Morgan came and went, contact lenses not withstanding, and at the end of our twenty overs, we'd managed 166 for 5. I have to own up; at the time I thought this was a little light. There were probably twenty or thirty more runs there for the taking, and given how well Essex had batted in their last game, there were more grounds for concern than optimism.

I confess the beginning of the Essex innings is headed up in my notes "the suffering begins", so I was obviously fearing the worst. We'd recently successfully bowled Pettini back into form, so he was no doubt looking for more of the same. And things did not look good when the first ball of the innings from Berg went for four. The old tactic of bowling each bowler in one or two overs was resurrected, and for once this year it came off for us. Pettini was out for 18 in the 4th over, caught and bowled by Finn, and the Essex runchase just... didn't really get back off the ground after that.

Napier and Walker both went pretty tamely, and I suffered an optimism attack as for the first time since, uhh, Tuesday, I thought we would win a game. And gentle reader, for once, I was right. Our fielding performance seemed more energised by the steady fall of wickets, and Essex didn't look particularly threatening at any point.

 

Their attempt to chase was just - inexplicably bad for a side that have played so well up to now. By twelve overs in, they still hadn't brought up their hundred, and fell further behind when Malan pulled another of his magic wickets out of the hat. A bad dye job, a big diamond earring and a few blondes, and we could have a passable Warney imitator on our hands.

Apart from Chopra, who played an excellent lone hand, Essex frankly squandered most of their lower order wickets. We mostly fielded well, apart from one communal comedy drop where three fielders went for the same ball and none of them got it. Foster's stumping was a smart piece of work and once he was out, it was clear the promised land of victory was in sight for us.

So, at least we didn't go ten for ten. It's been a rather painful campaign, especially after last year, but at least we haven't gone winless. Fingers crossed for tomorrow, eh?