Jason and the Elgar thwart Essex! Surrey ease to six-wicket win

Dean Elgar and Jason Roy put on an exhibition of power hitting to take Surrey to a six-wicket victory against Essex with five overs left unused

^{Jason Roy helped Surrey to victory over Essex (stock image)}

Chelmsford: Essex 294-9, Surrey 295-4 - Surrey won by six wickets

Dean Elgar and Jason Roy put on an exhibition of power hitting to take Surrey to a six-wicket victory against Essex with five overs left unused.

The pair put on 127 runs for the second wicket in just 18 overs to set the tone as Surrey chased down their target of 295 with consummate ease. The South African Elgar continued his rich vein of form in the Royal London Cup to add a 95-ball 87 to previous scores of 91 and 50. He hit three fours and four sixes.

Roy, playing his second innings since returning from duty with Delhi Daredevils in the IPL, was even more ferocious in his attack. The England white-ball opener departed earlier for 86 from 64 balls, but not before he had thumped eight fours and four sixes.

It gave Surrey their second win in succession after opening the campaign with two disappointing defeats against Somerset and Hampshire. Essex, meanwhile, have now lost three of their five games.

Essex spluttered and stuttered to a below-par 294 for nine even though Varun Chopra, Tom Westley and Ravi Bopara had laid the foundations for a total that looked at one stage as if it would be in excess of 320. But they did not kick on from 241 for four with seven overs to go.

Chopra followed his 160 against Somerset on Friday night with 61 from 84 balls. He put on 86 for the second wicket with Westley before both departed in consecutive balls to Scott Borthwick.

Bopara passed fifty for the fourth successive innings in the competition, finishing with 73 from 71 balls. Rikki Clarke helped wrap up Essex’s innings in the parsimonious closing overs for figures of three for 59.

Sam Cook made an early breakthrough in Surrey’s response when he had Will Jacks caught with his first ball, wafting at one down legside. But that was as good as it got for Essex.

Roy showed his intent when he deposited Wagner over midwicket and next ball smashed through the covers for four. Elgar, too, clouted Cook to midwicket for a six that brought up the fifty partnership in seven overs before Roy slog-swept Ashar Zaidi for another maximum.  Shane Snater was carted into the top tier of the stand for his third six, the fourth followed soon after off Simon Harmer. That posted the 100 for Surrey in the 16th over. Next ball came the century partnership.

The first ball of Wagner’s second spell ended Roy’s fun when he edged to give Adam Wheater his second catch. Elgar reached his fifty from 60 balls, but played second fiddle to Ben Foakes in a third-wicket stand that passed its half-century in seven overs. Elgar calmly and sweetly pulled Harmer for another six, so that Surrey required just 100 from 20 overs.

The century stand took just another eight overs before ten Doeschate’s slower ball did for Elgar who lobbed tamely back to the bowler. Foakes took up the cudgels and reached his fifty off 59 balls, seven of them boundaries.

As the target fell, Rory Burns failed to make his ground after coming down the wicket and was run out by Wagner. But Foakes saw Surrey home with an unbeaten 84.

Essex were put in on an easy-paced wicket. Wheater was first to go after hammering successive boundaries off Curran. But he hit Dernbach firmly straight to Jason Roy at cover for 15. But that brought in Westley to partner Chopra through the next 17 overs.

Chopra moved untroubled to a 66-ball fifty, and in the same over, Westley launched a six over mid and then executed an impromptu Chiinese cut for four that took the partnership past fifty in 12 overs.

Borthwick’s introduction into the attack received similar treatment from Westley: the first punched back for four followed by a pulled six over square leg. Another four, pulled through midwicket off the same bowler, took Westley to his half-century from 47 balls.

But Borthwick had the last laugh, accounting for Westley on 54 to Pope’s catch on the mid-on boundary. And he struck next ball when Chopra chipped to Burns at cover.

Essex went 10 overs without a boundary before Dan Lawrence chopped Dernbach to third man to post the fifty stand with Bopara. However, three runs later Lawrence, on 26, lifted Curran to a diving Dernbach at mid-on.

Bopara and ten Doeschate scampered singles before cutting loose latterly with a furry of boundaries. The captain lofted Clarke over long-on and Bopara followed suit to Batty, bringing up his own fifty off 54 balls, and the fifty partnership in seven overs. But in going for another, ten Doeschate holed out to Clarke on the boundary edge.

But Essex failed to capitalise on the platform built and scored just 53 runs in the final seven overs for the loss of five wickets.

Zaidi thick-edged Clarke and Dernbach took the catch at fine leg on the run, Harmer found Curran at mid-off in the same over and Batty caught Wagner off a skier. In between, Bopara contrived to run himself out when he called Wagner for a second run and failed to beat Jacks’s throw.

Report courtesy of the ECB Reporters Network

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