Dean Elgar, batting for more than five-and-a-half hours for a well-paced first century of the season, and Matt Critchley, smashing the ball to all corners of Chelmsford, took Essex within touching distance of a first-innings lead against fellow relegation candidates Durham with an unbeaten fourth-wicket stand of 154.
The left-handed opener Elgar had not strapped on batting pads for five weeks, having spent August back in his native South Africa, but after a scratchy start that echoed his season’s form, he quickly rediscovered the fluency of old with 140 not out from 264 balls.
Critchley, meanwhile, has been in decent nick for most of the summer and finished on 97 out of Essex’s 312-3 at the close, a deficit of just 21
Under heavy cloud cover, the rate of Essex’s steady acceleration through the gears was illustrated by Elgar’s partnerships of 76 for the second wicket with Tom Westley, 75 with Charlie Allison for the third and for the fourth with the freewheeling Critchley.
Durham had been dismissed at the start of the day for 333 with Jamie Porter extending his season’s wickets tally to 39 with figures of 4-77.
A punchy ninth-wicket stand of 41 between Graham Clark and Sam Conners took the visitors past 300 and what might prove a valuable second batting point in their fight to avoid dropping into Division Two of the County Championship.
When Essex batted, their determination to grind it out initially and establish a stable platform, trundling along at little more than two an over, highlighted by Elgar and Westley taking 17 overs to post their fifty partnership, it looked like becoming a battle of attrition and willpower.
Indeed, the start was so cautious that Essex had just seven on the board by the seventh over when Paul Walter was the first to depart, hanging his bat out against Ben Raine and being snaffled by first slip falling backwards.
Things perked up significantly straight after lunch with a flurry of boundaries to take the run-rate above two-and-a-half. But the pair were parted when Callum Parkinson found some hitherto unsuspected turn and rapped Westley on his back pad to win an lbw decision.
Elgar reached only his third half-century of the season from 107 balls with a single off his legs and then drove Parkinson through the covers for his ninth four. Allison was even more aggressive against the spinner, taking 14 off one over, including a six over the bowler’s head.
Elgar slowly but surely found his rhythm and lofted Parkinson over long leg for six as the third-wicket pair passed fifty inside 10 overs. By that point the run-rate had risen above three an over.
The introduction of Colin Ackermann broke the blossoming partnership, though. The part-time off-spinner pushed one through lower and faster and bowled Allison for 33 from 51 balls. Critchley dented the South African’s figures a couple of overs later with a lofted four and a straight six.
Three balls before tea, Elgar drove Parkinson to the far reaches of extra cover for the three runs that took him to his 53rd first-class century from 169 balls.
Compared to the earlier obduracy, Critchley raced to fifty from just 56 balls with his eighth four, driven straight past Raine, and had scored 65 when the stand passed one hundred in just 25 overs. It continued in much the same vein to stumps.
Doug Bracewell and Porter both added a wicket each to their respective overnight hauls in the 19 minutes it took Essex to wrap up Durham’s first innings in the morning. Conners got a leading edge to give Bracewell a return catch and figures of 3-70 before Porter sent Parkinson’s off-stump cartwheeling out of the ground for a fourth wicket.
Report supplied by ECB Reporters’ Network, supported by Rothesay
Discover more from 6up.net
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
