Essex made to battle for win by Lancashire

At Chelmsford Essex (150 & 313) beat Lancashire (144 & 288) by 31 runs After the frustration of a first-match washout at Headingley, Essex showed they have lost none of the champion resolve in beating Lancashire by 31 runs with more than a day to spare at Chelmsford.

After being skittled for 150 on the first day of this Specsavers County Championship Division One game, they fought back to set an improbable target of 320 and then overcame serious resistance from Alex Davies, Jordan Clark and latterly Joe Mennie, who all posted half-centuries, to edge home and secure a welcome 19 points.

Mennie thumped three sixes in a third half-century of the innings that only ended when Jamie Porter removed his leg stump to end the game. Porter’s four wickets for 54 in the innings took him to nine for 80 in the match.

Davies had taken the fight to Essex for 39 overs, while compiling a flawless 71, before he was knocked off his feet by Porter after facing 85 balls and hitting 11 fours.

Clark took up the gauntlet upon Davies’s departure but when he was the eighth man out, with 77 runs required, the Red Rose wilted visibly and they finished 32 runs behind. Clark’s belligerent innings lasted 80 balls, and included five fours and a six, while 104 runs were knocked off the target during his stay at the wicket.

Mennie, who departed for 56 after a 91-ball cameo, ensured the Lancashire tail wagged to the extent that the last pair put on 42, with Matt Parkinson contributing just four. It was a satisfying, if ultimately nervy win for Essex, as Lancashire were the only side they did not beat in their title-winning season, when they won 10 of the 14-game programme.

When Porter knocked back Haseeb Hameed’s off stump with the last ball of his second over, it looked as if Essex were on the kind of roll that accounted for many teams during their title surge last year. It was not until the 83rd over, and just after 5.30pm, that they got the job done.

Essex’s former Australia Test bowler Peter Siddle said: “For us to bat in the third innings and get over 300 showed it was a decent wicket to bat on. We just needed to bowl well and control the game.

“I think we controlled most of it and that put the pressure on them. But it was a little bit closer than we would have liked.”

Lancashire’s assistant coach Mark Chilton said: “Joe played wonderfully at the end there. But in cases like this, if you are leaving it to the 10th wicket to chase 70 runs down you are asking quite a lot.”