England Win 'NON' First Class Warm Up
By Michael Norwood
July 3 2013
Ok so it may have finished in slightly strange circumstances, but England have won their 'warm up' game with Essex (and friends as it turned out), and the best news of all was seeing Graeme Swann back out on the field and doing what he does best in taking wickets....
With most of the gloss taken off the game on Day 3, when Essex and England came to an agreement to replace the home sides injured players with firstly Boyd Rankin and Reece Topley, and as a result the game losing it's 'first class status', there then seemed to be a real practice match feel for the remaining overs of the game.
More importantly though, was Swann's return after being struck on the arm whilst batting, and he struck five times to leave the home side 186 all out, chasing an unlikely 400 to win the match.
Graham Onions was also impressive striking four wickets to stake a claim to be included in the opening test squad to face Australia.
At one point, Essex also replaced injured Tom Westley with Greg Smith in their batting line up, as the confusion continued into Day 5.
England declared their 2nd innings on 279-4 with Jonny Bairstow being bowled by Rankin for 28, now all eyes move to seven days time and Trent Bridge!
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