County Championship: Essex pace bowlers dominate Lancashire
- Essex’s pace bowlers showcase dominance against Lancashire in the County Championship, demonstrating their prowess in the cricketing arena.
On a rain-shortened day at Chelmsford, Essex paceman Shane Snater showed off his return to form with the ball, which had left him the previous season, by driving a huge hole in some vulnerable Lancashire batting.
The Dutch international, who was born in Zimbabwe, scored four runs to finish with return numbers of 4-42 after smashing through the top three in the Lancashire order for a personal cost of one run.
After claiming a total of 67 wickets in the two previous seasons, Snater only claimed eight costly wickets during an injury-plagued campaign the previous year.
After 14 overs, Sam Cook finished with 3-18 as Lancashire collapsed to 146 all out.
With nine fours in a furious 53 from 33 balls in 12 overs under the floodlights, Feroze Khushi showed no signs of relenting as Essex reduced their lead by 68 runs despite Khushi being removed in the slips off George Balderson.
Snater’s first over saw him remove Keaton Jennings to a spectacular soaring catch in the gully by Matt Critchley, and his following over saw him trap the careening Luke Wells plumb lbw.
After a nearly two-hour rain break, they resumed play in the middle of the day. Josh Bohannon faced just nine more wicket-less deliveries before dismissing Snater, and Dean Elgar made a spectacular one-handed grab low down at first slip.
Cook was rewarded when Snater’s first delivery after tea pinned George Bell in front of his stumps for just four, and Balderson was caught behind for failing to withdraw his bat in time.
After Matty Hurst held his bat out to Cook and became the second victim of wicketkeeper Michael Pepper, Tom Bruce chipped Jamie Porter to mid-on with a leading edge, and on his debut, Noah Thain took a wicket off Tom Bailey with his third delivery in first-class cricket.
Jack Blatherwick and Will Williams, the ninth wicket duo, put up fifty runs in thirty-six balls, but Blatherwick was caught on the long-leg boundary by Simon Harmer’s second ball of the match.
Cook then had Nathan Lyon held at point to end the inning with Williams still not out at thirty-two.
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