Porter makes most of new ball to put title-chasing Essex on top
Warwickshire all out for 201 as seamer takes four Lancashire thwarted to enhance leaders’ hopes
Essex continued their unstoppable push towards their first County Championship title since 1992 by bowling out the first division’s bottom side, Warwickshire, for 201, while their closest challengers, Lancashire, were held up by Somerset’s batsmen.
If Essex win their match at Edgbaston with a full hand of bonus points, Lancashire have to take at least 11 from their game simply to keep the race theoretically alive.
The key to winning the championship over the past four seasons has been not to lose matches. Yorkshire lost one game in each of their title-winning seasons of 2014 and 2015, while Middlesex won only six in taking the title last season but, thanks to their deep batting lineup, did not lose a single one.
Essex are unlikely to lose their first game of this season after their opening partnership put on 69 without loss in reply. It is the same formula as Middlesex’s: bat deep, chalk up lots of batting points, then nip in to win the odd game – or, in Essex’s case, more than the odd game because they have already won seven and still have two more rounds to go.
Alastair Cook was rested after the seventh Test of the summer but not Tom Westley, who is due to bat today. England’s selectors love to see a batsman kick on after his initial Test appearances, because it suggests he is absorbing his lessons and becoming more confident, and Mark Stoneman did that by scoring 131 from only 171 balls for Surrey against Yorkshire. A similar century for Westley will push him closer to a boarding pass on England’s flight to Perth at the end of October.
The belief that Essex would be relegated this summer, having won Division Two last season, centred on two of their main pace bowlers in 2016, David Masters and Graham Napier, having retired. But that underestimated Essex’s head coach, Chris Silverwood, and Jamie Porter, whose four wickets yesterday gave him 61 for the season – the most in the first division – at only 18 runs each. “He hits the seam and was peppering my thigh guard and bowled really well,” said Dominic Sibley, who was last man out for 76. Essex exerted their right as the visitors to bowl first without a toss and, while the pitch appeared good for batting, there was enough nip and zip for Porter to take two early wickets. He skidded the ball through at good pace – though not fast enough to attract England’s attention – to dismiss Sam Hain and Jonathan Trott, who missed when he tried his signature shot through midwicket, for the first two of the seven lbw verdicts won by Essex. “You only get one new ball a game, at least only one when you are fresh, so you have got to make the most of it,” Porter said.
Warwickshire’s woes have stemmed from the top, with Ian Bell resigning as captain mid-season, and he went into this game averaging only 22 with the bat. Having passed the job on to Trott, who looks far more relaxed in his postengland roles of father and captain, Bell batted neatly but copped a fine inswinger from Neil Wagner, the fast left-hander who plays for New Zealand. Wagner has taken 24 wickets, while no other Essex seamer has taken more than 14, such is their dependence on Porter.
Porter has had, however, the support of Simon Harmer. His four wickets took him to 59, suggesting no escape for Warwickshire and the title – very soon – for Essex.
Lancashire were frustrated at Taunton by Stephen Davies, who hit 111 as Somerset finished day one on 330 for nine.