Essex vs Surrey 4th-7th May

I wonder if anyone from the club will bother
to tell us why Worrall isn’t playing!
Our PR is awful. Football they tell you why someone
isn’t playing when the teams are announced.

Would imagine Worrell has a Injury. Atkinson has got the Nod over Lawes which is a interesting decision.

How many lifelines are we going to give AN Cook

We are all guessing though. How difficult is it for them
just to say why!

Well, Atkinson has gone a little way towards proving me wrong while safe-hands Steel has done the opposite!

Don't think we've bowled particularly badly on a flat one tbh

Jhe10077 wrote:Would imagine Worrell has a Injury. Atkinson has  got the Nod over Lawes which is a interesting decision.

How could he get injured? he hasn't played since Sunday and was sent out to bat in the second innings which itself seemed odd.
Have our fitness gurus given him something daft to do which has caused a problem.
Agree that there should be something posted on website to inform.

Not sure how Kemar hasn't got Westley out

This is just the response after tea we needed!

Essex are chucking this in the bin! Come on the Rey!

Atkinson has bowled very well today, I must say. If all of our seamers stay fit we will have selection headaches every match. We have clawed our way back into the game, and I'm looking forward to the challenge between our strong batting line-up and the best opposition bowling attack in the division.

Taken the new ball getting hit all round the ground

Poor bowling by Abbott with second new ball,obviously the rest did him no good. We’ve really let it slip with this pair at the crease!!!

Excellent effort from Gus Atkinson with career best. Bit disappointed with the final total though.

Well bowled indeed Gus Atkinson - he justified his selection.

We can be pleased with how we pulled it back from mid-afternoon, though the 9th wicket partnership was annoying and looking at scores around the country I'd say their score is 30-or-so above par.  Now need the batsmen to step up. Another game where we need to prioritise building an innings over "Bazball bonus point" chasing.

Jackers wrote:Well bowled indeed Gus Atkinson - he justified his selection.

We can be pleased with how we pulled it back from mid-afternoon, though the 9th wicket partnership was annoying and looking at scores around the country I'd say their score is 30-or-so above par.  Now need the batsmen to step up. Another game where we need to prioritise building an innings over "Bazball bonus point" chasing.

We must also bear in mind we shall probably be batting last so Harmer could come into effect. Not sure of your idea Jackers that their score is that much above par. I don't think you can judge other matches as the same as this one. Only after our first innings will we know.

Great return for Gus . At least we survived without loss of a wicket the tricky two overs before close of play . Sensible batting required tomorrow as stated .

Wedmore Wanderer wrote:Great return for Gus . At least we survived without loss of a wicket  the tricky two overs before close of play . Sensible batting required tomorrow as stated .

Hi Wedmore - good point about our surviving those tricky two overs. Had we lost a wicket then, fair to say imo that it would have been Essex's day. As it is, it still remains to be seen.

In line with other posts, their 9th wicket partnership was annoying. However, I feared a somewhat worse final score than 314 when they passed 200 for only 3 down.

Atkinson rightly gets the plaudits tonight but a handy return as well of 2/24 for Jacks. Bizarre that 8 of today's wickets went to two players few here (if anyone) expected to be playing.

If we hadn't dropped Cook twice and I think Harmer, 260 was on the cards. But having lost the toss we'd take this score. Not sure why we took the new ball (and got tonked) when Atkinson and Jacks were doing so well. Odd. Might not be easy in the morning. With a bit of weather around I'd settle for a draw.

Proper Batting required tomorrow no nice quick twenties and Thirties parity and beyond otherwise Harmer will probably have the final say.

Having abandoned plans to attend on Saturday due to the weather forecast and something else coming up, just seen that attending on Sunday requires navigating a rail replacement bus and consequently a round trip in excess of five hours.

Sigh.

Porter bowls an awful delivery short and wide, Burns back-foot drives it but edges it, and it’s dropped by third slip diving across second.

Cricket was the winner there, I think.

Oh dear.

Rain will be the only winner so I wouldn’t worry.

Suffice to say this isn't going very well. Early days but we really need the openers to get a good partnership or two going early on in the season; don't doubt their abilities but the start hasn't been overly great