Essex’s County Championship Division One game at Chelmsford against an unbeaten Yorkshire side, featuring former England captain Joe Root for the first time this season, ended in a hard fought out draw.
Another former England captain, Sir Alistair Cook, stole the headlines though as the 37-year-old managed to score centuries in both innings of a first-class game for the first time in his career.
Dominant Opening Days
The hosts ended the first day of play on a commanding score of 234/3, which included 107 from Sir Alistair Cook for his 71st first class century. Nick Browne, Cook’s fellow opener was caught out for a duck in the slips off just the third ball of the day off the bowling of Jordan Thompson. Local boy Paul Walter, from Basildon, having been dropped twice whilst on 12 and 16, finished the day unbeaten on 89.
Day Two brought about more Essex dominance, as last season’s Division Two
winners creeped over the 400 mark to score 403. It was a slow scoring day with Tom Westley’s men only managing to score two batting points, but Walter managed to complete a career-best 141 and Simon Harmer, batting at number 9 smashed a quick-fire 54 before being caught behind.
Jordan Thompson and Dom Bess each took three wickets in what was a tough couple of days in the field for the visiting side. Yorkshire batted for 36.1 overs at the end of the day but could only stumble to 81/3, with Sam Cook taking two weeks and Shane Snater taking the other.
White Roses Recovery
Day 3 brought a change in fortunes as Yorkshire’s star studded batting line up manged to stay in the middle the whole day, scoring 344 runs for the loss of just two wickets to take the score to 425/5 at the close of play.
Nightwatchman Matthew Revis managed to notch up 47 runs before being run out, Root, playing his first game since resigning as England’s captain, managed to make a swift and fluid 75 before chopping on off the bowling of Essex’s new signing Matt Critchley.
Another former England batter, Dawid Malan, finished the day on 87* and youngster Harry Brook was unbeaten on 110, as a draw looked certain to be the end result.
Final Flourish
Malan was caught out off just the second ball of the day to start what was something of a collapse for the away side, with Brook finishing on 123, taking his average for this season up to a staggering 159 for the season.
Yorkshire lost their final five wickets for just 40 runs as they bagged 465 runs for their first wicket total, leaving Essex enough time build an unbeaten 167-run opening partnership in their second innings, which included a 50 for Browne and 102* for Cook.
Essex bagged 11 points from the contest compared to Yorkshire’s 13 in what was both sides’ third draw of the season. Essex currently sit fifth in the league, ten points off Yorkshire in fourth.