CHARLIE PETERS: Sam Cook claimed a second career 10-wicket haul as the 2019 champions romped to victory inside four sessions at Chelmsford
Essex walloped Northamptonshire by an innings and 44 runs before lunch on day two to seal the LV=Insurance County Championship Division Two title and break numerous records at Chelmsford.
Sam Cook’s second 10-wicket haul for Essex saw the home team soar to one of the most comprehensive victories in recent memory.
And after a game that created several moments of history, The Cricketer has compiled the key numbers from a fixture that saw almost as many trips to and from the pavilion as runs scored.
96.3 – The clash at the CloudFM County Ground was the shortest County Championship match by overs of all time, beating the 109.5 it took for Kent to beat Northamptonshire in 1999.
170 – Essex’s first innings total was enough to ensure their batters weren’t required again, despite initially appear to have recorded an under-par total.
Essex's victory over Northants was the shortest County Championship match scheduled for four days ever.
— The Cricketer (@TheCricketerMag) September 22, 2021
⏤ Essex vs Northants, 2021 (96.3 overs)
⏤ Kent v Northants, 1999 (109.5 overs) pic.twitter.com/HlrL0ShBfL
44 – The travelling side came up short by 44, despite Essex having only batted for one innings.
45 – Northants’ second innings total was their lowest since 1946 and their joint-lowest against Essex, matching a record from 1923.
16 – Northants’ score of 45 is the county’s 16th lowest Championship total of all time.
4 – Just four sessions were required to complete the bizarre match.
5 – Shane Snater took the first wicket of day two with just the fifth delivery of the day, dismissing Saif Zaib for a second-ball duck.
38 – The highest score of the match, made by Northamptonshire’s Emilio Gay in their first innings. It took 74 balls and 112 minutes for Gay to post his total, which included five fours.
10 – Sam Cook’s match figures of 10 for 41 marked his second first-class 10-for, following 12 for 65 against Kent in 2019.
110 – It took Essex 18.2 overs – 110 deliveries - to bowl Northants out in the second innings.
9.09 – Essex took a wicket with 9.09% of deliveries in Northants’ second innings.
0 – Simon Kerrigan, James Sales, Saif Zaib, Josh Cobb and Tom Taylor all made ducks for Northants across the two innings.
1999 – The previous shortest Championship match by overs took place in 1999, also involving Northants. James Sales’ father David was involved as Northants fell to Kent inside 110 overs.
2 – Essex clinched the County Championship Division Two title on the second day of the match, their second piece of red-ball silverware in as many years and fourth in the last five.
Posted by Gary on 23/09/2021 at 13:27
I was there, the pitch was blameless. There were no balls keeping low, no excessive bounce and no deviation apart from what the bowlers extracted. It was all down to top-notch bowling by both sides and slap-happy batting from Northamptonshire. They really ought to be ashamed of themselves. I, like everyone else there were looking forward to three or four days of good cricket but unfortunately the visitors just weren't up for it. Their supporters should be asking questions, only not about the pitch.
Posted by Gary on 23/09/2021 at 11:20
I assume that Simon was nowhere near the Chelmsford County Ground fir this game otherwise he wouldn't have jumped to his ill-informed conclusion. There was nothing wrong with the pitch but everything wrong with the players' approach to the game. It just do happens that a bad Essex batting performance is still twice as good as a Northants bad batting performance. The result had everything to do with demob-happy players and absolutely nothing to do with the wicket as I'm sure the umpires will confirm.
Posted by simon on 23/09/2021 at 09:11
Sickening that Essex can call the pitch inspectors on Taunton in 2019, and then present this pitch to Northants in 2021. 'Double standards' doesn't even come close to describing this.
Posted by Tom on 22/09/2021 at 17:27
When I turned up at the ground today, a fellow supporter said that all the people he had talked to thought it wouldn't go past 11 o'clock. I thought that was just plain ridiculous - even after witnessing yesterday's procession. However, with 3 down by 10-45 it was doubtful if it would even get that far. In the end the final wicket fell with the scoreboard clock reading exactly 1100. The bowlers from both teams did well to get 96 overs bowled in a day plus a half hour given the 30 interruptions for someone to trudge off and 20 minutes between innings. Mind you I suppose the bowlers had plenty of encouragement to get on with things.
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