Irani and Cowan bowl Essex to a fine victory

Some of the most engrossing cricket around the country this season has been staged on festival grounds and Essex's County Championship match against Worcestershire at Chester Road, Kidderminster was no exception.

A fast outfield, a well-prepared hard pitch and good weather are the key ingredients and the mixture proved perfection for Essex who completed a quick 'double' over Worcestershire with a 10 wicket win that launched them into second place in the championship.

This was Essex's fourth win of the season in the competition and the first time that they had been able to take the maximum 20 points from a match.

Stuart Law played an influential in the final outcome, by collecting his second successive century against Worcestershire.

This was the 25th first-class 'ton' for Essex and the 47th of his career and one of the richest in quality.

When the teams met at Chelmsford in July, Law took an unbeaten 133 off the opposition bowling, including Glenn McGrath, to sustain his side's victory.

This time around, against a toothless attack that lacked their Australian ace, Law struck another imperious hundred, reaching 189 in the first innings, that included 30 boundaries in a five and a half hour stay at the crease.

He now needs a further 28 runs to reach 1000 first-class runs for the season and would become the fourth Australian batsman to reach that milestone on the county circuit this year.

Law was involved in two century partnerships, firstly with Paul Prichard that realised 166 in 37 overs for the third wicket.

He then accompanied Stephen Peters to a fifth wicket stand worth 185 in 41 overs - the highest fifth wicket partnership for the county against Worcestershire and beating the previous record of 158 set by Trevor Baily and Les Savill at Leyton in 1957.

Peters recorded his highest championship score of the summer, 67, while Prichard's innings of 74 was remarkable given that he had dislocated his left thumb while fielding a ball from Danny Law on the opening day.

These combination of statistics helped the county to a first innings lead of 160 after the home side had been bowled out for 302.

Ronnie Irani won the toss and elected to field and his decision looked to be fully vindicated when the home side were left reeling at 17 for three before Paul Pollard with 123 led the recovery.

However, the lead was always going to be crucial and with Ashley Cowan and Irani recording their best figures of the season, Essex were set a target of 123 for victory, comfortably achieved in an unbroken partnership by openers Prichard, who scored 62 and Paul Grayson, a half century.

Cowan claimed match figures of nine for 123 having headed the new-ball attack with a performance as good as any in his career so far.

Consistently a threat to the batsmen with probing line and length, he was rewarded with his first five wicket haul of the season.

So too his skipper whose persevering effort of pace and movement undid the fallible Worcestershire batting with incisive performances.

Scores: Worcestersire 302 (Pollard 123 n.o Solanki 55, Leatherdale 52, Cowan 4-69) and 282 all out (Hick 75, Pollard 69, Solanki 56, Cowan 5-54, Irani 5-79). Essex 462 (S Law 189, Prichard 74, Peters 67, Shriyar 4-110, Kabir Ali 4-114) and 125-0 (Prichard 62 n.o, Grayson 50 n.o).

Essex won by 10 wickets.

Irani calls for more of the same...

Following Essex's emphatic championship win over Worcestershire, Essex skipper Ronnie Irani complimented his side on: "A magnificent all round team effort coupled with some notable individual performances".

He continued, "We have got ourselves into a superb position in the league through hard work, grit and determination and we'll need to continue to show those fighting qualities for the remainder of the season. If we can do that I'm sure we'll be rewarded".

Perhaps the only Essex player left to rue the events of the match was Nasser Hussain.

Hoping to rediscover his batting form he opted to play in this game but was out to a catch behind the wicket off the bowling of paceman Kabir Ali, having scored 10.

He would not have been consoled by the reflection of umpire John Steele who said of the delivery that accounted for the England captain: "He got a very good delivery and there was little that he could do about it".

Hussain has now scored 154 runs in 14 first-class innings this summer but surely the tide will turn shortly for the batsman who batted outstandingly for his country during the winter in South Africa.

He certainly won over a few new young admirers at Kidderminster though.

Walking around the ground with Paul Grayson, the England captain spotted some youngsters practicing in the nets.

After bowling a few deliveries with their tennis ball to a gobsmacked batter, Hussain borrowed his bat and faced an excited and enthusiastic array of youthful and eager bowlers for some time before continuing his circuit of the ground, leaving the youngster in awe.

On Sunday, Essex's National League match at Derby was abandoned when persistent rain arrive shortly after Derbyshire had begun their pursuit of a revised target of 193 for victory from 40 overs and were 14 for one from four overs.

Essex had closed their innings on 204 for eight having faced the full quota of 45 overs but a brief hold-up for rain reduced the length of the match.

The visitors took the opportunity to blood some of their promising youngsters with 20 year-olds Andrew McGarry and Justin Bishop in the starting line-up.

Wicketkeeper Foster, who was making his first team debut was preferred to Barry Hyam who has been struggling to make runs in the limited-overs game recently.

Pace bowler McGarry was figuring in his first one-day match while Bishop was making his first senior appearance of the summer in a young side that included only four capped players with seven of the team aged 25 or under.

Star performer in the truncated match came from the bat of Napier who batting at number 3, blasted his way to 78 scintillating runs facing only 83 deliveries with nine boundaries that included three sixes, all to different parts of the ground.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.