Essex Chelmsford 19/4/24 4 days

[Rob]

I did think Berkenstein was a bit of a weird appointment given the fact that Gloucs didnt win a single game last season.

[anyportinastorm]

Scott Read summary and Benkenstein interview to be nothing to see here, well played, hard luck. Not WTF was that, you should all be ashamed.

[MickeyG]

Yeah we probably shouldn't over react to a terrible performance as Lancs held their own against Hampshire last week who are also a decent side. I seem to remember Essex turning Lancs over easily last year too. Lancs does look a bit lightweight on both sides of the ball though. If the experienced players don't perform it puts a lot of pressure on the younger lads, and we expect them to be a bit up and down in their form as thats part of learning.

[lancsdes]

I bet Lyon is wondering what the bloody hell he has come to.

Matt Critchley , although he didn’t have a big part in this match , must be thanking his lucky stars that the Lancs Academy reduced him to tears a few years back , telling him he would never make a cricketer.

[man in the stand]

Lancs are an inexperienced team - I think the uncapped players. if you count Bruce and Lyon, now outnumber the capped ones. Last season Hurst scored two fifties in his three CC innings now he is averaging seven!
As mentioned above Bailey is well under his best...one bright point Wells is our best bowler - strike rate of 23 balls!

[Admin]

Lancashire 146 & 107: Bell 35; Snater 3-17, Porter 3-24
Essex 377: Westley 81, Elgar 79; Balderson 3-75
Essex (22pts) beat Lancashire (3 pts) by an innings and 124 runs


Lancashire suffered an innings defeat on Day Three against Essex at Chelmsford as Jamie Porter, Shane Snater, Sam Cook and Simon Harmer picked up the nine remaining wickets..

The Essex pace bowlers exploited a pitch playing low by taking three wickets apiece as Lancashire were beaten in just 41 overs for the second time in the match.

Porter set the ball rolling with the first of nine Lancashire wickets to fall in the session to finish with 3-24 before Snater took his match figures to 7-59 with 3-17 in the second innings.

Essex’s second win of the season, worth 22 points, took them further clear at the top of the Vitality County Championship with only three games played.

Lancashire had started day three on 10-1 requiring another 221 runs to make Essex bat again. They lost five wickets in the first hour and never recovered with the game wrapped up in extra time before the scheduled lunch interval.

11 balls into Ronnie McKenna's debut first-team appearance, he was celebrating a first significant contribution as nightwatchman Will Williams edged Porter into his gloves having hung around for 36 balls.

That precipitated a catastrophic collapse with four wickets falling in 16 balls. Josh Bohannon lasted 25 balls before he walked across a ball from Cook and was lbw, while Luke Wells was beaten all ends up by Snater to be bowled for a 54-ball 21.

In the same Snater over, George Balderson saw the umpire’s finger go up as he played down the wrong line before Tom Bruce had his off stump sent cartwheeling by Porter.

There was a 10-over hiatus while Matty Hurst and George Bell put on 30 runs before the wicketkeeper scooped Snater into square leg’s hands.

Off-spinner Simon Harmer had not bowled much on this seamer’s paradise, but in his fourth over of the innings he had Tom Bailey walking down the wicket and patting the ball back for a simple caught and bowled.

Next over Jack Blatherwick followed Bailey’s lead and gave Harmer more catching practice by chipping the ball back to the bowler.

Bell had hung around for 40 balls and appeared to be heading for a third fifty in four innings at Chelmsford when he nicked Cook to Dean Elgar at first slip to wrap up the match.

[anyportinastorm]

Benkenstein is a better coach than Ten Hag. I'll give him that.

[Admin]

Apr 21, 2024 17:59:42 GMT anyportinastorm said:

Benkenstein is a better coach than Ten Hag. I'll give him that.

That's no surprise

[chris]

Apr 21, 2024 11:22:50 GMT Butter_Fingers said:

Come on lads can you not make it obvious you want to get back to the hotel, have a shower and put your feet up to watch the Semi ...

Have you not heard of Catchup?

Maybe we should give them credit to know when the game's up, and they wanted it over so that they would be available for the second XI game next week?

[sillypoint]

Surrey, Hampshire & Essex was always a tough start, and Porter and Cook, now with Snater, have always caused us problems. We've now got a week to regroup before we play a run of winnable games, so perhaps best to judge after those games, but there is no doubt that there are some worrying signs.

We've been a difficult side to beat recently, nearly always responding when behind the game, but that didn't happen here. I said before that there was no disgrace in losing to Essex but there is a disgrace in a capitulation.

There's a nagging doubt that the players are not behind the new coaching structure. As others have said, Bailey is looking a shadow of recent seasons, Bohannon is looking frenetic, Balderson doesn't seem to know what his role is, and while anybody can get low scores, Bruce doesn't look like getting a score, and Blatherwick continues to be an embarrassment.

As I say, the team have a chance to prove me wrong in the next few games, but Chilton should be a worried man.

[chris]

Assuming Hampshire don't lose all 10 wickets after tea due to a brainless chase of 295 in a session Lancs will be 2 points adrift at the foot of the table and like Kent also in the relegation zone not playing next week. Both sides will be playing catch up from here starting when they meet eachother the following week.

[exile]

Apr 22, 2024 9:59:30 GMT sillypoint said:

There's a nagging doubt that the players are not behind the new coaching structure. As others have said, Bailey is looking a shadow of recent seasons, Bohannon is looking frenetic, Balderson doesn't seem to know what his role is, and while anybody can get low scores, Bruce doesn't look like getting a score, and Blatherwick continues to be an embarrassment.

As I say, the team have a chance to prove me wrong in the next few games, but Chilton should be a worried man.

Completely agree: something seems to be wrong behind the scenes.  A low first innings score in bowler-friendly conditions against one of the better sides is one thing but Lancs's feeble response was quite another.  Thinking of the way Bailey and Williams demolished Surrey at The Oval last year, I was fully expecting them to keep Lancs well in the game, instead of serving up a diet of juicy half volleys for the Essex openers to tuck into.  Our back-up seam is currently almost non-existent.  Balderson has his moments but is basically a batter who can bowl a bit.  Blatherwick must be in the team for "having a great attitude" or something of the sort; it certainly isn't for his cricket.  Our second innings batting defies description: yes, the ball was keeping pretty low for a pitch only in its seventh session but it was hardly a minefield.  We just gave up.  After two gentle work-outs on batter-friendly pitches wih a Kookaburra, we failed our first real challenge just about as badly as was possible.    

[Admin]

[exile]

Speaks for itself.

[anyportinastorm]

Apr 23, 2024 5:36:33 GMT Admin said:

Benkenstein is consistent if nothing else.