The second instalment of this season’s “Battle of the Bridge” was comprehensively won by Essex Eagles, with a 131 run partnership in 10.2 overs between Ravi Bopara and Ashar Zaidi the difference between the two sides.
The evening started in front of a capacity Essex County Ground with an impeccably respected minute’s silence in memory of the 100th anniversary of the battle of the Somme.
Kent’s evening was to start as they would have hoped with Kagiso Rabada finding the inside edge of Jesse Ryder’s bat with the third ball of the match. Kishen Velani and Tom Westley saw through the powerplay overs, but a calamitous collision with his batting partner cost Velani on 19, as Sam Northeast’s throw from the deep allowed Sam Billings time to demolish the timbers.
Westley followed with the score at 73 in the 10th over, falling victim to an incredible return catch by James Tredwell; the ball struck back with thunderous power, but the Folkestone spinner holding on well to avoid injury.
In a change to the expected order, Ashar Zaidi was promoted to number 5 with both of Kent’s spinners operating. Both Zaidi (54*) and skipper Ravi Bopara (81*)started steadily, but were soon finding the boundary with regularity, with Kent’s bowlers unable to stop the avalanche of runs. The normally economical Ivan Thomas was dealt with harshly in each of his four separate overs, and Mitch Claydon’s last two cost him 37 as the Essex pair struck 9 maximums in their 131 run partnership; reaching the 200 mark off the last ball of the innings.
Kent also lost a wicket in the first over with Joe Denly losing his off-stump to Paul Walter on the 2nd ball of the Spitfires reply. Tom Latham and Northeast took the score up to 49 in the powerplay, but the introduction of Graham Napier saw the Essex all-rounder claim the wickets of both, one in each of his first two overs. Latham fell to a spectacular catch from fellow Kiwi Ryder, as the ball spiralled high into the night sky.
Ryder was also responsible for the dismissal of Sam Billings, hitting the wicket directly to leave Kent at 78-4 in the 10th over. As a comparison, Kent were just ahead of Essex at this stage, but despite the best efforts of Alex Blake (37) and Fabian Cowdrey (18), no-one could keep up with the increasing run-rate against some tight bowling. Darren Stevens fell to another direct hit run-out, and the lower order subsided to 154-9.
Even Tredwell had to admit that “38 an over was a little too much” to chase by the time he got to the crease.
“It was like the old Ravi. He started cautiously again, as he does, but he always fancies himself to catch up – and he did. And more. Hopefully he will take that confidence moving forward and keep posting scores like that.
“Ashar has done that so many times for us now. He has been brilliant in the one-day stuff for us so far. He is a good team man and a great character as well. I don’t know anyone who hits the ball quite as cleanly as he does.
“It was a good bowling performance, but it was off the back of them chasing 204, which is a great total. It puts pressure on the batters from ball one. Not taking away from the boys, they bowled well and it was great to see Paul Walter come in and pick up three wickets.
“We’re sat fifth now with a game in hand on one of the teams above us. We’ve in a great position to strike.”
Kent captain Sam Northeast said: “The demons of how we have been playing in the past came back to haunt us. The right and left-hand combination did for us. Things are not going well for us at the moment.”
“The number of times you chase down 200 is pretty rare. You’d like to be chasing a little less than that. It was a seriously short boundary, but I should think we should have done better. There are a lot of things to look at. We’re a little bit short in certain areas.
“But if we perform like we did last night [when they beat Sussex] then, yes, we can go through to the knockout stages. There is a lot of cricket still to be played.”
| Essex innings | Runs | Balls | Mins | 4s | 6s | S-Rate | |
| JD Ryder | c Billings b Rabada | 0 | 3 | 4 | – | – | 0.00 |
| KS Velani | run out (Northeast) | 19 | 12 | 23 | 3 | – | 158.33 |
| T Westley | c and b Tredwell | 33 | 31 | 34 | 4 | – | 106.45 |
| *RS Bopara | not out | 81 | 43 | 58 | 4 | 6 | 188.37 |
| Ashar Zaidi | not out | 54 | 33 | 43 | 5 | 3 | 163.64 |
| RN ten Doeschate | did not bat | ||||||
| DW Lawrence | did not bat | ||||||
| +JS Foster | did not bat | ||||||
| GR Napier | did not bat | ||||||
| PI Walter | did not bat | ||||||
| MR Quinn | did not bat | ||||||
| Extras | (2 b, 6 lb, 4 nb, 5 w) | 17 | |||||
| Total | (3 wickets, innings closed, 20 overs) | 204 | |||||
| Fall of wickets: | |||||||
| 1-0 (Ryder, 0.3 ov), 2-43 (Velani, 5.2 ov), 3-73 (Westley, 9.4 ov) | |||||||
| Kent bowling | Overs | Mdns | Runs | Wkts | Wides | No-Balls | Dots | 4s | 6s | S-Rate | Econ |
| Rabada | 4 | 0 | 30 | 1 | – | – | 13 | 24.00 | 7.50 | ||
| Claydon | 4 | 0 | 56 | 0 | – | – | 5 | – | 14.00 | ||
| Thomas | 4 | 0 | 45 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 6 | – | 11.25 | ||
| Cowdrey | 4 | 0 | 27 | 0 | 1 | – | 7 | – | 6.75 | ||
| Tredwell | 4 | 0 | 38 | 1 | 1 | – | 5 | 24.00 | 9.50 | ||
| Kent innings | Runs | Balls | Mins | 4s | 6s | S-Rate | |
| TWM Latham | c Ryder b Napier | 29 | 24 | 33 | 1 | 2 | 120.83 |
| JL Denly | b Walter | 0 | 1 | 3 | – | – | 0.00 |
| *SA Northeast | c Foster b Napier | 23 | 15 | 22 | 2 | 1 | 153.33 |
| +SW Billings | run out (Ryder) | 18 | 12 | 19 | 1 | 1 | 150.00 |
| AJ Blake | c ten Doeschate b Quinn | 37 | 31 | 40 | 2 | 2 | 119.35 |
| DI Stevens | run out (Bopara) | 12 | 13 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 92.31 |
| FK Cowdrey | c and b Walter | 18 | 13 | 26 | 1 | 1 | 138.46 |
| K Rabada | c Foster b Quinn | 0 | 2 | 2 | – | – | 0.00 |
| JC Tredwell | c Quinn b Walter | 0 | 2 | 7 | – | – | 0.00 |
| ME Claydon | not out | 3 | 4 | 6 | – | – | 75.00 |
| IAA Thomas | not out | 3 | 4 | 4 | – | – | 75.00 |
| Extras | (1 b, 5 lb, 2 nb, 3 w) | 11 | |||||
| Total | (9 wickets, innings closed, 20 overs) | 154 | |||||
| Fall of wickets: | |||||||
| 1-1 (Denly, 0.2 ov), 2-49 (Northeast, 5.1 ov), 3-64 (Latham, 7.5 ov), 4-78 (Billings, 9.3 ov), 5-98 (Stevens, 12.3 ov), 6-137 (Blake, 17.2 ov), 7-138 (Rabada, 17.5 ov), 8-148 (Cowdrey, 18.3 ov), 9-149 (Tredwell, 18.6 ov) | |||||||
| Essex bowling | Overs | Mdns | Runs | Wkts | Wides | No-Balls | Dots | 4s | 6s | S-Rate | Econ |
| Walter | 4 | 0 | 26 | 3 | 1 | – | 12 | 8.00 | 6.50 | ||
| Lawrence | 2 | 0 | 24 | 0 | – | – | 2 | – | 12.00 | ||
| Quinn | 4 | 0 | 22 | 2 | – | – | 11 | 12.00 | 5.50 | ||
| Napier | 3 | 0 | 23 | 2 | – | – | 7 | 9.00 | 7.67 | ||
| Bopara | 4 | 0 | 29 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 8 | – | 7.25 | ||
| ten Doeschate | 3 | 1 | 24 | 0 | 1 | – | 9 | – | 8.00 |
Kent Spitfires: Tom Latham, Joe Denly, Sam Northeast ( c), Sam Billings (w), Alex Blake, Darren Stevens, Fabian Cowdrey, Kagiso Rabada, James Tredwell, Mitch Claydon, Ivan Thomas.
Essex Eagles: Jesse Ryder, Kishen Velani, Tom Westley, Ravi Bopara ( c), Ashar Zaidi, Ryan ten Doeschate, Dan Lawrence, James Foster (w), Graham Napier, Paul Walter, Matt Quinn.
Essex Eagles won by 50 runs
Picture supplied by David Annand.