By Dave Buxton
October 9 2002

It's time on 'Scimitars' for our End Of Term Reports of all the players, as we start our look back at a successful 2002 season for Essex. In true school tradition, each player will receive a grade for their work, with no one wanting to come bottom of the class. We start with captain, Ronnie Irani:

End Of Term Reports - Ronnie Irani

STATS:

First-Class:	977 Runs @ 61.06	29 Wkts @ 20.37	CT=0
County Champ:	920 Runs @ 65.71	26 Wkts @ 21.92	CT=0
All One-Day:	567 Runs @ 43.61	40 Wkts @ 17.87	CT=6
NU League:	235 Runs @ 33.57	16 Wkts @ 20.25	CT=2
B&H Cup:	214 Runs @ 42.80	20 Wkts @ 13.10	CT=4
C&G Trophy:	118 Runs @ 118.00	4 Wkts @ 32.25	CT=0
One-Day Ints:	169 Runs @ 33.80	8 Wkts @ 31.50	CT=2
BESTS:	207*	6-71	CT=2

REPORT:
Ronnie's stats speaks volumes about his season-fantastic. Quite simply Ronnie lead from the front with heroics that took Essex to glory in the Championship, National League promotion and the Benson & Hedges Cup Final.

Ronnie's own form was so impressive right from the season's start, that this rubbed-off on his Essex team mates and he did it in style.

A fantastic Championship season saw him average 65.71 with his career best of a superb 207 not out vs Northants at Ilford, as well as many other excellent knocks in holding the middle-order together, 101 vs Derbyshire in quick time to secure a win and 182 not out vs rivals Middlesex at Southgate.

His tremendous form also saw him lead Essex to a fine one-day season. With the bat he averaged 43.61 in all one-dayers and his knocks of 57 vs Worcs in the B&H Semi and his 86 unbeaten vs Middlesex in the C&G will live long in the memory, with his powerful hitting, especially vs Middx, were in that innings he hit no less than 5 sixes before he'd hit a four!

His bowling form was also excellent. He was the leading wicket-taker for Essex in all competitions, with 69 wickets, due reward for his swing, accuracy and economy rate. 40 of these came in one-day matches, with 20 in just 8 Benson matches, a great record.

This terrific form lead to another deserved England call-up for the NatWest Series and he failed to disappoint, taking his form from the County game, by achieving his career bests with the bat and ball in the same match! It was of course vs India at The AMP Oval, a game which England won and Ronnie scored 53 and took 5-26 and took a great diving catch on the boundary to win England the game, duely winning the Man-of-The-Match award.

If you thought his playing on the field was superb, then his captaincy was even better. The season Essex had speaks for itself in terms of this and the way his character buoys his players up is tremendous and team spirit is never a problem when Ronnie is around. His tactics have also improved greatly with the experience and just to round off his excellent season, he has earned his place in England's one-day squad to Australia.

GRADE =

A*

My player of the season, Ronnie gets an A* grade for his 2002 work.

NEXT WEEK'S REPORT: Paul Grayson

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Date: 9/10/02

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