Washout farce angers Essex

EssEx began their County Championship defence in farcical circumstances, with no play possible at Headingley for a fourth day despite little rain in Yorkshire. The umpires abandoned the match at 10am on the final morning, the first four-day washout in Headingley’s history, and ECB match officer stuart Cummings was compiling a report into the shambles last night. Essex coach Anthony McGrath criticised his former county, saying: ‘We’d have liked to see work going on out there at least. It was almost conceding we weren’t going to play without doing anything. We’ve had an hour’s rain in four days and not had a ball bowled.’ Persistent rain in the build-up had left the ground saturated. staff decided using water-hogs to dry the outfield would have exacerbated the issue. ‘We had hope every morning we could play,’ said Yorkshire director of cricket Martyn Moxon. It left both teams with five points and the hosts hoping for a dry spell ahead of Friday’s visit of Nottinghamshire. Yorkshire coach Andrew Gale said: ‘someone told me it’s going to be warmer than Ibiza this week! If that comes, we’ll be fine.’ Notts began life back in Division One with an extraordinary win across the Pennines. Lancashire resumed on 58 for two, but Jake Ball (above) helped skittle them for 73. That left Notts needing 10 runs, and they fell to nine for four before Riki Wessels hit the winning single.