3 early wickets for Essex in the first session. Harmer could well be the bowler of the season. How do some bowlers manage to take wickets so easily, whereas another of a similar ilk got precious little on what is essentially a benign batting surface? As things stand, Essex look like being the only winners this time round and will visualise the Championship trophy on its way out of Lords and along the M25 to Chelmsford.
Hants have declared . Somerset need 161 runs in 31 overs . I am NO expert , but air play for trying to make a game of it ? Sorry TOM , posted before reading the thread .
This is so weird. 8.30 in the evening, and tuning into a run/wicket chase. I very much suspect it will finish a draw, but you never know.
http://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/40438885 This is like Middlesex's last match of last season but in reverse. They will be lucky to avoid relegation. Last season's top 2 become this season's bottom 2. Disagree Tom!! Harmer must have more wickets than anyone else right now. 47 in 8 matches in rather good going. So Essex now lose Cook, but their whole team can bat. Once Amir gets into a groove, Essex are going to be unstoppable!!
It would have been harsh on Essex not to have won this match as they have been so dominant. They are going to finish 50 or 60 points ahead of the 2nd placed team in this year's 4 day Championship!!
Cricket at its best when it goes so close to the wire. Wish I had put £50 on Essex to win the title. They are nailed on. In addition they will do well in the Twenty20. Middlesex will come last in the Southern group. I am looking at the bowling averages and their strike force of Toby Roland-Jones, and Murtagh are really struggling, plus their batsmen are misfiring. Fraser really needs to look for a world-class spinner of next season. Pakistan generally have a surfeit of them.
Just seen Hampshire`s result. Good effort, denied by the rain but in the same situation Essex would have won. That is the diffference between teams that win titles and those that don`t. They twist earlier. Just a moot point, what has happened to Somerset?
That's ridiculous. You can't possibly know Essex would have won. So much time was lost in the match a draw was the favourite regardless of who was playing.
Fair point! I should have said "may well have won" but it is all hypothetical. I would like to ask you why never engage in a positive way with anything I write. I don't mind you not agreeing but I just feel it is quite negative the short dismissive comments that you write. And I take you for a better person than that!!
