STUART LAW has needed time to warm up in his third season at Essex but the frustrations he has felt at not being able to punish English attacks with quite the ease of last year was taken out on Northamptonshire with a vengeance at Valentine's Park.

Law provided the usual large, vociferous Ilford festival crowd with a flowing innings typical of his stay in England to lift Essex to joint top of the AXA League with Yorkshire, whom they will face in the semi-finals of the Benson and Hedges Cup. The only surprise was that it took Law until the end of May to produce it.

Before yesterday the Queensland captain had scored just two half-centuries this season, both of them in the championship, and had totalled just 70 runs in his five AXA innings. That was soon forgotten as Law launched the Essex reply to Northants' challenging target on an admittedly quick scoring, small ground with gusto.

When the 50 was raised in the eighth over, Law had scored 42 of them and he was on 78 when the 100 was reached in the 14th. As so often, Law was cut off in his prime, the persevering Jeremy Snape having him caught on the cover boundary for 83 off 59 balls which was littered with his trademark cover drives. The rest, then, was easy for Essex, Darren Robinson continuing his good work by progressing to 66 and Nasser Hussain contributing the biggest six of the day in his classy unbeaten 62 as the end came with 22 balls remaining.

The Northants innings threatened more than it delivered. In the end it was left to Tim Walton, with 51 off 38 balls, to provide late momentum in partnership with Rob Bailey as 60 came from the last five overs.

The Essex outcricket, on a bumpy surface, was as impressive as their batting with Peter Such confirming his recovery from a rib injury with three wickets.