Date-stamped : 24 Jul96 - 02:18 County Championship 1996 Essex v Nottinghamshire County ground, Chelmsford 18, 19, 20, 22 July 1996 ====> REPORT (Day 1, 18 Jul 1996) Notts decline early By Neville Scott at Chelmsford First day of four: Essex (234-4) lead Notts (97) by 137 runs CRICKET is the most perverse of games, predicted at peril. Given two of the three counties whose championship wickets this season have cost more than 40 runs each - neither with a seamer averag- ing less than 30 - a high-scoring declaration match was odds on. In fact, all should be done and dusted by Sunday. In the 70 minutes before the morning`s drinks break 40 trouble-free runs had come from the visiting openers. Nottinghamshire then imploded. Eight wickets went for 34 runs in under an hour, the last six in five overs. Mark Ilott enlisted a brisk cross-wind for his outswing and both he and Ronnie Irani worked wholeheartedly to extract bounce but Nottinghamshire were wretched. Just how wretched was put into brutal perspective later by Gra- ham Gooch as he bludgeoned his way to 91 from 125 balls with a nonchalant contempt that is still chilling to witness. By the time he was undone by one which bounced from Andy Af- ford just after tea, Essex, 134 for two, were already 37 runs on with 35 overs to come. For at least six years, Nottinghamshire`s late summers have been blighted by a collective loss of will. This time their season was effectively over three weeks ago when they lost in the NatWest trophy first-round. Decline has apparently set in early. Only one of the top six batsmen fell when genuinely beaten in defence. Three perished to drives - Paul Johnson and Chris Cairns splendidly caught as they sliced square - Tim Robin- son went to the cut and Usman Afzaal, in his first innings of the season, tried unsuccessfully to withdraw his bat. Irani, taking the last two wickets in 15 balls after lunch, completed the third five-wicket haul of his career to gain championship-best figures. Playing so often at Trent Bridge can hardly enthuse but Irani will rarely find opponents so complicit. After Gooch, Essex could not quite turn mayhem into massacre as Afford fought hard and brought a top-edged pull from Stuart Law. But their first championship win in seven games already looks assured. ====> REPORT (Day 2, 19 Jul 1996) Notts fight for survival By Neville Scott at Chelmsford Second day of four: Notts (97 & 152-1) trail Essex (368) by 119 runs FOR NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, starting a second innings an hour after lunch and needing to bat 150 overs to regain modest hope, meas- ured cricket was precisely the demand. Tim Robinson certainly obliged. Taking 13 overs after tea to add a single, for example, before returning a catch off a leading edge from Stuart Law`s leg-spin 20 minutes from the close, his splendid resolve (51 in 153 balls) should do much to restore credibility if team-mates can take his and Paul Pollard`s lead. To their credit, after Thursday`s mauling, they showed charac- ter and awareness yesterday. Trailing by 137 overnight, they looked capable of removing Essex`s remaining six wickets by lunch, when Mark Bowen claimed three men in a 15-ball mid- morning burst. On a pitch where the odd one has stopped, and a few have bounced, the drive, unless carefully chosen, has sometimes proved dubious. An astute Paul Johnson, the new captain, gave Bowen short midwicket and short mid-off. Ronnie Irani and Robert Rollins duly lobbed catches to the infield, and Mark Ilott then went to a fuller inswinger. Bowen, persevering manfully in Chris Cairns`s absence with a side strain, completed a maiden five-wicket haul when the last man fell. By then, however, Paul Prichard had found a partner in Neil Williams with the self-denial to bat 31 overs for as many undefeated runs. Prichard, struggling this summer, reached his second championship fifty before going on to a season`s best 80. His shot selection, the prime virtue on this pitch, let him down only with his parting cut, and was taken up for Notts by Pollard with a best this year of 72 not out. His side, with far to go, need him to stay today. ====> REPORT (Day 3, 20 Jul 1996) Sunset beckons as Gooch ponders calling it a day Neville Scott at Chelmsford Overnight: Essex 368 (G A Gooch 91, P J Prichard 80; M N Bowen 5-119). Nottinghamshire 97 (R C Irani 5-27, M C Ilott 4- 31). FEW of cricket`s patterns are unknown to Graham Gooch, still a devastating batsman in his 24th season. Notts` long fight-back - albeit without a score of real substance from the specialists - would be especially familiar. Watching from most points between slip and deep square as Not- tinghamshire, bowled out an hour after tea, made a go of it, he had time to ponder much more than England selection meetings - eventual retirement, most probably. It has become faddish to speak of various bodies, from treasury panels to Labour advisory commissions, being asked to "think the unthinkable". Essex without Gooch, 43 on Tuesday, would be as near as Chelmsford gets. Yet counties have a way of reaching tacit consensus in April and one of this season`s themes has clearly been youth. New blood enlivens England and courses most effectively, perhaps, in Leicester and Yorkshire. The latter, indeed, are so well endowed they could release Paul Grayson, 25, one of seven bowlers permed by Essex as they whit- tled their way through the visitors. But Essex themselves have not notably caught the mood. Getting the right balance is difficult, but it can be argued that a fixed top-order, and an overseas batsman policy, had much to do with the departure of Nick Knight and Nadeem Shahid and has restricted Jon Lewis since his debut 100 in 1990. Other local batsmen of reputed ability, Andrew Hibbert and Steve Peters, await their turn. Five minutes` walk from the crumbling Victorian brickwork of Gooch`s old school, a small band of Punjabi kids play committed cricket nightly on a vacant open space - Leytonstone High Road`s Iceland supermarket car park to be exact. But in Gooch`s child- hood, long ago, most boys were as likely to play cricket on spare ground in summer as to kick footballs around in the winter. For two decades, with the game disappearing from state educa- tion, all that changed. There was a danger that the county game would dwindle to privately-schooled batsmen and Australi- an bowlers holding British passports. Complacency would be fatal, but of late, a belated county readi- ness to put money into reviving interest in the wider community has begun to work. Arguably, there is now more under-25 talent around than for some 15 years. It should not lightly be blocked. Sadly for Nottinghamshire, one example, Usman Afzaal, given his head as batsman not spinner these days, was one of three men to go to the second new ball as resistance wavered in mid-afternoon. From 307 for six, 36 runs on, Notts fought on to 415, Kevin Evans offering another laudable innings of fine judgment. For Gooch, departing at tea for selection duties, the pattern had already turned towards victory. Essex, with or without his help tomorrow, need 119 more runs after they stumbled to the close on 26 for two, the visitors quickly getting rid of openers Grayson and Darren Robinson. Grayson, promoted to open the innings because of Gooch`s depar- ture, was bowled by Mark Bowen without a run on the board, while left-arm spinner Andy Afford breached the defences of Robinson. ====> REPORT (Day 4, 22 Jul 1996) Such springs a surprise By Neville Scott at Chelmsford Essex (368 & 145-4) bt Notts (97 & 415) by 6 wkts THE only person on the ground, colleagues included, who failed to savour the black humour was Graham Gooch. Peter Such, visiting creases for 15 summers more in hope than belief, had reached the second fifty of his career, equalled his best score and taken Essex to within 16 runs of success. He then fell, setting the stage for Gooch to record a third-ball duck. The former England captain trudged off with that "stone me" look few can rival. Two overs later and 10 minutes before lunch, without a hint of tension as they made the 119 needed overnight, Essex won their first championship game since May 13. Relishing every minute, Such, formerly of Nottinghamshire, used all parts of pad, thigh and torso to keep out spitting deliveries from his old spin partner Andy Afford and once drove Richard Bates into the top deck of the Pearce stand. His career average advanced to 7.48. As pleasing to Essex, 26 for two at the start, was the summer`s first fifty from their gifted wicket-keeper Robert Rollins, who has struggled slightly in his second full season. In all there was little to exercise umpire Allan Jones, covering for Da- vid Constant, who became the latest to be summoned to Botham versus Khan in the High Court. Given rain, dull pitches and points for the draw, only 60 per cent of championship games have been won this campaign and Essex remain one of at least eight teams to court hope of the title. They still tend to play to a three-day outlook and badly need another bowler. But they face Durham in their next match and are just 47 points behind the leaders with a game in hand. Source :: Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by Shash (shs2@*.cwru.edu)