Plenty Of Runs, But UCCE Match Ends In Tame Draw
102
By Dave Buxton
April 17 2003
Aftab Habib and Ronnie Irani claimed day 3 tons before lunch, but the students managed to hold on, as the match at Fenner's ended in a tame draw, with Essex managing only four 2nd innings wickets.
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Essex began the final day on 190-1 and soon moved swiftly along, as Affy and Ronnie moved to centuries before lunch.
Habib was the first to get there with 102 off 154 balls with 7 fours, before retiring and Irani also scored 102 from 117 balls with 13 boundaries, before retiring too.
This gave a bit of time in the middle to Midders (16), Dakin (13) and McGarry (2*) before the declaration came on 352-3 from 75.1 overs. Tony Palladino picked up his debut first-class wicket of James Middlebrook, to end with 14-0-71-1. Arfan recorded 5-0-19-1 and his brother Adnan was wicketless this time around, with 8 overs for 38.
That meant the hosts were set 677 runs to win and although were never going to reach the target, battled well to make 163-4 from 59 overs, as Essex lacked a little bite in their bowling.
Shankar and Mann made 40 and 43 respectively, while Arfan Akram scored 30 in 59 balls, before being bowled by Andy Flower. The very part-timer picked up only his 5th first-class wicket.
James Middlebrook picked up 2-61 from 21 overs, while took Grayson 1-18 from 11. Flower bowled just 2 overs, 1-5 and although wicketless, McGarry bowled economically with 12-4-29-0.
Overall though, disapointing we couldn't finish the hosts off and only four wickets in two sessions against students shows the possible problems with the attack. However, Scott Brant didn't bowl second time around (surprising, because surely he needs the practice over here?!) and it's only the first game of the season. Batting's fine though and great to see three centurions and three others making half-centuries. Bring on Middlesex on Friday!
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Date: 14/4/03