County Championship Division 1, Day 3, Chelmsford
Somerset 348 (Overton 141, Rew 48) & 49-0 Beat Essex 149 (Shaw 3-20, Lammonby 2-5) and 245 by 10 wickets
If there is anyone out there who disagrees with the following statement they need to have a word with themselves.
Craig Overton is a County Cricket Colossus.
Deputising for Lewis Gregory for the second time this season he led his side with bat and ball. A career best 141 on Saturday, augmenting his devastating counter attack on Friday evening with calm assurance and maturity seeing his side to what proved to be a match winning first innings lead.
On Friday evening I asked here, ‘is is unreasonable to ask the birthday boy skipper to continue where he left off in the morning, Lewis Goldsworthy to replicate last year’s end of season ton at the same ground or Will Smeed to drop his early season mountain of runs slap bang in the middle of Essex’s headquarters.’
Well it turns out it wasn’t!
Somerset did pretty much everything right for most of the day (apart from yet again missing up by a couple of a batting bonus point). Jack Leach struck early to remove Elgar and when Bekenstein and Allison followed, all threee in single figures, Essex still trailed by 154. A frustrating last session, due to an increasingly benign surface and weather conditions which made bowling and fielding less than a pleasure, resulted in no further progress.
So, the third day resumed with work to do thanks to that defiant Saturday evening fourth wicket partnership between Walter and Critchley. Early wickets were needed and early wickets arrived. First to go was Critchley caught in the slips by … yes you got it…. Craig Overton, 141-4 became 151-6 well before the first hour was done. And while there was some lower order resistance with a further 90 added the requirement was just 48 shortly after lunch.
With Lewis Goldsworthy’s hamstring having forced a second injury substitute Somerset had a choice of two from three to start the runs chase, with Archie Vaughan joining Will Smeed in the batting order. I’d assumed, wrongly, it would be Smeed but Vaughan’s greater red-ball experience tipped the decision his was.
You could have mistaken Archie for Will with a 26 ball 41 including two glorious sixes of the much-reduced Harmer. Josh Tomas, only faced 9 balls in the 5.4 overs it took to see Somerset home ending on an unbeaten 8. By the time I’m writing this Craig’s men could well, like me, be home watching the final round from Augusta. I hope they enjoy it – they all deserve a great evening. They’ve certainly made my weekend.
So what do we make from this performance? It is Somerset’s first win at Chelmsford since 2010, that in itself is a cue for further celebration. More significantly the top division’s notoriously slow starters are off the a great start after two tough assignments. And all this has been achieved without Lewis Gregory and Tom Banton.
The churlish will argue that the new injury regulations have smiled on our side but few could dispute this win was achieved because of it. The absences of TKC and the increasingly impressive Lewis Goldsworthy are not ideal but we are fortunate to have Vaughan and the hugely enticing prospect of a red-ball Will Smeed to step up.
The bowling remains a worry, I can’t be shifted from thinking Josh Shaw is not what Somerset’s seam attach needs, but with Alfie Ogborne almost certain to play in Southampton and Jake Ball exceeding expectations – could this be a golden autumn of a season for him?
However, this was a complete team performance, every one of Somerset’s XIII (the easy-impaired TKC is given a free-pass in this regard) contributed to the victory, something that all title winning sides consistently do.
It would be ridiculous to begin thinking about a title this early in the season but this is my 57th season of following my beloved county so I’m being ridiculous. After another long winter the warmth of a strong Somerset start glows strong this evening. Let’s hope it continues people.
For now ‘We Are Top of the League yes We Are Top of the League’
