Lions Scratch Eagles At Chelmsford
More runs
By Dave Buxton
May 1 2003
Essex Eagles lost the first National League match of the season against the Surrey Lions at Chelmsford. An entertaining match was brought into life by the visitors Adam Hollioake and Azhar Mahmood & although Ronnie Irani & co tried their best, the team were just beaten by 15 runs with 2 ovs unused.
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521 runs scored on a Chelmsford cracker and despite a small crowd, those present were treated to some excellent cricket and brilliant batting in particular.
The small crowd was probably based on the weather forecast, which predicted rain. However, the wind was high at times and blew away any threat of showers and although it was mainly cloudy, the sun even appeared a few times.
In terms of team news, Nasser Hussain made his first start of the season in replacing Aftab Habib, but otherwise, Essex were unchanged from the Warwickshire tie.
Ronnie won the toss and decided to do what we did best last season and chase, especially with conditions overcast early on. It proved a good move, as inside the 21st over the Lions had slipped to 82-6 thanks to a combination of excellent bowling and rash shots.
Ian Ward was the first man to go, lbw to Jon Dakin without troubling the scorers (10-1) and then two wickets in succession put Essex in the driving seat early doors, as Ali Brown (18) slashed at a wide ball only he can off Dakin also, giving Foster a smart catch and then next over Mark Ramprakash played back and got a low one from Scott Brant which clean bowled the former England Test player for 11 and the Lions were 34-3.
Graham Thorpe and Rikki Clarke added 34 to put Surrey back in it, but then three more quick wickets left them in the trouble of 82-6.
And it was Graham Napier who took all three, by having Clarke and Jon Batty both plum lbw and in between Thorpe hit a full delivery into the ground and the ball trickled back onto his stumps and there was enough pace for the bails to be dislodged and Thorpe was sent packing for 26.
At this stage the Eagles could do no wrong, but then enter the man who I think should get the England one-day captaincy, Adam Hollioake and Pakistan all-rounder Azhar Mahmood.
Together they smashed a 7th wicket partnership of 154 off 21 overs to set the game alight and entertain the faithful present.
From ball one Hollioake made his intentions clear by taking the attack to the Eagles with 11 from his first 3 balls and this clean hitting was a feature of his 66-ball 77, which included 6 fours and 4 sixes, with one off Grayson a clean straight hit that smashed into a window of the press box.
After taking the three quick wickets, Napier was surprisingly taken off and Hollioake and Mahmood seized the initiative.
Don't forget Mahmood's part in this, himself carting 98 from 73 balls with 9 fours and 3 maximums and he was only out with 1 ball remaining of the innings, in trying to go his century, Jon Dakin picking up his 3rd wicket by clean bowling the Pakistani.
Hollioake went 3 overs before, when Scott Brant returned to mop-up his stumps, but not after he and Mahmood had given the Lions the upper hand in this contest, as Surrey closed on 268-8 from their 45 overs, which was probably around 30 above par.
Dakin bowled his 9 overs with 3-51, Napier 7 overs 3-50 and Brant 9 overs 2-44, a good return on his NCL debut.
Despite the setback of not being able to finish Surrey off, Essex didn't let this worry them and after 6 overs the scoreboard read 61-0, as Robinson with 12 and Jefferson 47 in 36 balls again put anything lose to the boundary with some brilliant drives and 11 fours between them.
The pair are flourishing as an opening pair, adding 65 for the first wicket here, but fell within quick succession to hand the initiative back to Surrey.
Worse still, when Andy Flower was bowled by a Tudor delivery that nipped back and took the top of the off-stump and at 75-3 the Eagles needed to re-build.
This they did through Hussain and Ronnie Irani, playing cautiously to start with, but then more aggressive in their 4th wicket stand of 61 in 11 overs.
But then Saqlain Mushtaq came on and tied Nass down and when Nass tried something different to the sweeps he was employing, he unluckily cut onto his timber, albeit against a ball that was too full to cut.
Just 10 runs later, Paul Grayson's bad run of form continued as Mushtaq had him stumped for 10 and 146-5 and 123 adrift of victory seemed as if it'd be game over.
Not so, with Essex batting right the way down and nearly chasing 381 the day previous, they gave a good fight. Lead of course by Ronnie Irani, he really cut loose by smashing 3 sixes over long-on into neighbouring houses off Martin Bicknell as well as six other fours.
However, just when he looked set to take Essex close, he tracked Clarke in his first over and edged to Batty, going for a brilliant 64 from 60 balls only. 178-6 now and although Foster, Dakin, Napier and Brant had a go, the key wicket of Ronnie vertually won the game for Surrey.
Dakin hit a quick 17 but Saqlain had him lbw on the back foot attempting a sweep for his third victim, but Foster showed his England credentials again, with a blistering 41 from 37 deliveries with 5 fours and a straight six into the Hayes Close End. However, after adding 37 with Dakin and 18 with Napier, he played a similar shot to the six he hit, but this time got it off the toe of his bat and Saqlain was there at long-off to hold a good catch off Tudor's bowling.
James Middlebrook went for 0 to a slower ball from Hollioake and although Napes (11) and Brant (14 not out) tried hard, they couldn't find the boundary and it was Napier who was last man out, as he mis-timed a pull off Mahmood to be caught by Tudor at mid-on and Essex were all out for 253 with 2 overs unused and a defeat by 15 runs.
So, disappointing start, although excellent entertainment value throughout. I guess the key moments were Hollioake and Mahmood's partnership and Saqlain tieing down an end and picking up 3-27 from his 9 overs to show his class, but overall, if we can nearly compete with Surrey, then we should be able to have a good run in this competition.
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Ronnie Irani - Another fantastic innings by the legend, although all in vain.
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Date: 27/4/03