By Dave Buxton
February 15 2003

Scimitars look back at Classic Matches from the past seasons involving Essex continue, as Part Two relives the belter against Worcestershire at Chelmsford in 2000 in The Championship. The visitors arrived to Chelmsford in 2nd place in Division 2 & Essex had to win. Read on to see what happened....

Classic Match - Vs Worcs, '00.

Wednesday 19th to Friday 21st July 2000 in my opinion saw probably the best Championship match involving for many a year, since those title winning triumphs at the beginning of the 1990's.

With the Championship (that season being sponsored by PPP Heathcare) being spilt into two divisions for 2000 and Essex in division two, regaining status in Division one was vital.

The season so far in The Championship had been slow with nine games producing only two wins, although with only one defeat Essex were on the tails of the top three promotion places thanks to a number of draw points gained.

The visitors in this epic match, Worcestershire, were in contrast winning more matches and were second going into the match, so Essex knew they couldn't afford a slip.

Ashley Cowan was the only notable absentee from the match due to an injury, so Andrew McGarry took his place and in the process made his well-deserved Championship debut. So the Essex team lined-up as follows: Prichard, Grayson, Robinson, S. Law, Irani (captain), Peters, Hyam (keeper), D. Law, Ilott, Such & McGarry.

On a bright sunny morning where Essex would have batted first if they'd won the toss, they lost it and the visitors decided wisely, it seemed, of first use, especially with the Chelmsford pitch in recent weeks favouring the side who batted first.

Day one was a rather uneventful day, with Worcestershire batting through 104 overs scoring only 232-7. The noticeable contributions coming from Andrew McGarry, who took his debut wicket with the second man to fall of Phil Weston for 27, caught by Stephen Peters. The experienced Paul Pollard laboured 255 balls for only 77, while David Leatherdale was more aggressive, scoring a very good 62 from 143 balls, with six fours and one six. Once both Leatherdale and Pollard departed to Danny Law and McGarry (for his third wicket after bowling Driver) Essex sensed they were on top.

Day two saw the match really starting to kick in, as Essex took just 36 balls to wrap up the Worcestershire 1st innings for 240. McGarry was the most impressive bowler on debut, with figures of 16-6-29-3. Ilott and Irani finished things off on the morning of day two, to share five wickets between them, Ronnie with three.

Essex went out to bat with the news that Darren Robinson would not be able to bat due to fracturing his thumb while fielding and was to be out for several weeks.

With Essex effectively one wicket down before starting their 1st innings, Glenn McGrath took full advantage on his way to 5-40 from 18 overs. He dismissed Grayson and Irani for ducks and got key wickets of Stuart Law (19), Stephen Peters (23 from 100 balls) and second top scorer Mark Ilott (with 25 meaty blows towards the end). Paul Prichard top scored with 45, but all-in-all, another woeful Essex batting display left them 131 all out from just 53.3 overs and a deficit of 109.

Essex knew they needed early wickets and when they reduced Worcestershire to 89-6 including the wicket of Vikram Solanki who had hit 53 from only 57 balls, Essex were sensing they had a grip of this match, with Worcestershire effectively on 198-6.

Peter Such by now was getting some major turn and after dismissing Solanki and before that Driver, got another crucial blow of opposing captain Steve Rhodes, caught by Prichard at short-leg for 13. 106-7, effectively 215-7, Essex were right back in the match thanks to a fantastic bowling and fielding display.

McGarry again bowled well with two early wickets of Wilson and Pollard and day two finished with Worcs 124-7 in their 2nd innings, a score Essex would have been thrilled at.

What they wouldn't have been thrilled at on the third day of this topsy-turvy match, was the news that both Ronnie (stomach muscle) and Ramble (hamstring strains) were unable to bowl any more in the match.

That left Suchy, Danny Law and McGarry to take the last three wickets, a task that was to be held up due to stubborn resistance from Kabir Ali, with 43 at number nine. He added 26 and 38 for the 8th and 9th wickets respectively and although Danny Law got him in the end and Suchy the final two batsman, Worcs had progressed up to 176 all out, but more importantly a lead of 285. Suchy finished superbly, with 22.3-8-39-5. McGarry and Danny Law took two-a-piece.

With Robinson unable to bat and at that stage Ilott too, plus the fact McGrath was on top form and batting up to that point had been poor, 286 seemed an uphill struggle, despite there were 182 available overs.

However, the Chelmsford pitch seemed to get easier to bat on and this was proved with the usually emaculate McGrath conceding eight fours in his first six overs. Four of those went to Prichard as he rattled up a quick 20 before going to Ali with the score on 35.

Then came a telling partnership, as Grayson and Stuey Law got in on the act. They added 118 for the 2nd wicket in brilliant style, with Grayson hitting a lovely flat pulled six off McGrath into the Executive Suite.

The partnership breaker David Leatherdale did just that to send back Grayson for a well complied 69 from 111 balls, with 11 boundaries (one a maximum).

Still, with Stuey batting excellently and Ronnie looking in his usual positive self, Essex went into tea on day three 202-2 and with the sun beating down on Chelmsford and only 84 more needed with 7 wickets in the bank, an incredible win was on the cards.

Both the Essex batting lynch-pins carried things on after tea taking the score onto 258 and their own partnership to 105. Stuey went to a brilliant hundred and you could tell it was to be a match-winning innings.

However, with only 28 needed, Essex suffered their typical collapse to put the victory into doubt.

First part-time spinner Solanki accounted for Ronnie for 35 and with this Rhodes tried one final throw of the dice and turned to his ace in the pack.

He might have been ineffective earlier in the day, but McGrath came back with a bang and three beauties to dismiss Peters (0), Hyam (0) and Danny Law (4), left Essex 265-6 and 4 wickets gone for just 7 runs.

McGrath got Peters and Hyam with two throat balls that were edge behind to Rhodes and then Danny Law with his trademark in-swinging yorker that hit Law right on the boot and was nothing more than plum, leaving Danny with a very sore left foot.

The crowd that was slowly drifting away in the expectance of an easy home win, were quickly drifting back to their seats, as a thrilling climax was on.

We all thought Ilott was not able to bat and with Such and McGarry left, we all feared the worse, only to see Ramble stroll out with a runner to try and support Stuey.

An anxious 20 minutes or so occurred, as Ramble gave the strike back to Law and so forth, until Ramble swept Solanki for four to lift the spirits.

Still, with McGrath bowling to Ilott, 7 were needed and you could hear a pin drop as the crowd were glued to their seats.

Then the crowd went into pandemonium, as Ilott struck a four over the infield. McGrath was not happy and two balls later, the ball was flying over his head once more from the blade of Ilott to the boundary boards and the win was ours. The crowd stood on its feet to applause the fantastic win, but more so Stuey Law, who probably played his most important knock for Essex. He remained unbeaten on a superb 133 from 220 balls (19 fours and 1 six), with Ilott unbeaten on 14.

Law and the team got their deserved standing ovation for a win that leaped Essex into 2nd place, ahead of the team they beat. Essex went onto keep 2nd place and gain promotion, while Worcestershire never seemed to recover from the loss, falling out of the top three altogether.

A real classic, what a match!

Scorecard

If you have a Classic Match you've been to and would like to share with us at Scimitars, then please feel free to write a report, including your feelings and e-mail it to me at webmaster@essexcricket.info.

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Date: 15/2/03

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