What a day of cricketing contrasts! At Chelmsford, the Essex faithful witnessed one of the worst batting failures in modern history while in Cardiff, Duckworth-Lewis served up the cruellest of finishes for the West Indies and luckiest for South Africa.
The County Championship has produced mixed fortunes for Essex this season. When they were trounced by Northants earlier in the season, coach Paul Grayson humbly apologised. This evening the dressing room was in shock after Glen Chapple and Kyle Hogg ripped through the Eleven in barely an hour. Twenty all out is their lowest ever score in the competition and the lowest by anyone against Lancashire. In the days of black-and-white, a team might at least have had uncovered wickets as an excuse for such an appalling performance but the Chelmsford pitch was supposedly placid, the visitors having just racked up 398, with the aforementioned Chapple and Hogg each scoring half-centuries at the tail end!
Even more remarkable is that 75% of Essex's second innings came from boundaries, two of which were scored by Jaik Mickelburgh who came perilously close to carrying his bat for ten runs! Lancashire's innings victory takes them to second place and into strong contention for promotion. Essex remain in mid-table but their confidence must be zapped to pieces. Elsewhere in Division Two, Kyle Coetzer's career-best 219 was the cornerstone of Northants' massive score but rain helped Leicestershire survive. Hampshire accepted Gloucestershire's stiff final-day target of 411 after forfeited innings, but may have regretted it after falling almost 200 short.
In Division One, Yorkshire (easily) and Durham (in a nailbiting climax against Warwickshire) claimed their fourth wins of the campaign and occupy the top two slots, displacing Middlesex who were crushed by the White Roses.
So, back to Cardiff and that rain-truncated Group B game in the Champions Trophy. That there were enough hours between showers to have any real contest was a bonus but the way the game ended was remarkable. West Indies had already won the toss and put the Saffers in, but as Ingram, De Villiers, Miller et al stroked their way to 230-6 in the 31 allotted overs, it looked a difficult proposition. Buoyed by Dale Steyn's return to fitness, South Africa kept Johnson Charles fairly quiet although Chris Gayle had moved on to 36 before giving a leading edge catch off Morris. Samuels entertained for a while but, with the clouds amassing, most eyes were on the fluctuating D/L par score.
With Pollard and Dwayne Bravo at the crease, they were keeping pace until the former heaved at McLaren and was well caught at third man by Steyn. The clouds wept heavy drizzle and no sooner had Darren Sammy reached the middle the umpires waved everybody off. They were 190-6 and the D/L par score? 190! No further play was possible and so it ended a tie! With one point apiece, South Africa qualified for the semis on net run rate. Had Pollard not been out the previous ball the Windies would have won the game and AB's men would be on their way home. A tough way to go but big Kieron could not have predicted the imminent arrival of the rain.
So the Proteas squeak through, behind the Indians who are now guaranteed to play at Cardiff next Thursday. Glad I have that ticket! Who they play is anyone's guess. Sadly the weather forecasts for the weekend are dismal indeed, especially for the England v NZ clash. I'd say one of those two will win Group A, with Sri Lanka possibly joining them in the knockouts. India v Sri Lanka at Cardiff. That's a mouth-watering match if ever there was one.
