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Amla returns for third season as Surrey line up their overseas players

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Mar-2022Kemar Roach, the West Indies fast bowler, has rejoined Surrey for the first five matches of the LV= Insurance County Championship season, where he will team up with his fellow overseas player, South Africa’s Hashim Amla.Roach, who will lead West Indies’ attack against England in the forthcoming Test series, impressed for Surrey in his first spell with the club in April & May 2021, taking 22 wickets in five matches before returning to international action.His efforts included a career-best innings haul of 8 for 40 against Hampshire, and a further nine-wicket match in the London Derby against Middlesex at the Kia Oval.Roach, 33, will be available from the start of the Championship campaign, against Warwickshire at Edgbaston in April, and will remain with the club until their home meeting with Northamptonshire, which gets underway on May 5. He will also be on hand for the home clashes with Hampshire and Somerset, and a further away fixture against Gloucestershire.”After my thoroughly enjoyable time at the Kia Oval last season I am thrilled to be heading back for another stint with Surrey CCC,” Roach said. “I finished last season well with ball in hand and hope to pick up where I left off. I would like to thank both Surrey and CWI for this opportunity and I can’t wait to get back to the UK.”Roach has taken 231 wickets in 68 Test matches for West Indies. In total, he has 432 first-class wickets to his name since making his debut in the format in 2008.Surrey’s Director of Cricket, Alec Stewart, said: “We’re very pleased Kemar will return to Surrey for the first five matches of the season. He had a real impact on the squad in the first part of 2021, not just as a bowler but as an experienced international player in the dressing room too.”He is a proven performer in all conditions and showed last year how he is perfectly suited to the early part of the English domestic season and we look forward to seeing him perform in a Surrey shirt again this year.”Amla will be back at Surrey for a third consecutive season as the club’s second overseas player. He was the club’s leading run-scorer in Championship in 2021, making 994 runs – and is expected to be available for the entirety of the first-class season.

“It is very difficult to balance the side at the moment. I am not 100% sure if Shakib would be able to bowl”

Mohammad Isam18-Dec-2022Shakib Al Hasan is likely to play the Dhaka Test as a pure batter after he was unable to bowl post the first day in Chattogram. Head coach Russell Domingo said that they would have difficulty in balancing the side if that was the case, but would be happy having Shakib as batter and captain as they try to level the series.”He could play as a batter [only],” Domingo said after Bangladesh lost the first Test. “Obviously he didn’t bowl enough overs. He is still struggling with his shoulder and [ribcage] bruising. It left us with four bowlers – a big blow for us.”Ebadot [Hossain] broke down [too], so we were stuck with three bowlers. It is very difficult to balance the side at the moment. I am not 100% sure if Shakib would be able to bowl. He is definitely available to play as a batter, which is an issue for us. We need an allrounder.”Related

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Shakib made 84 in the second innings in Chattogram, getting out trying to slog Kuldeep Yadav as he looked for quick runs even as Bangladesh kept losing wickets at the other end on the fifth morning. The hosts eventually lost the match by 188 runs but Shakib’s batting was one of the few bright spots in the game.Domingo said that Shakib has shown that despite his “laidback” demeanour, he is hungry to perform in Tests. The topic came up for discussion after Shakib was not seen on the field for certain periods during India’s first innings, but Domingo believes Shakib wants to continue to play Tests.”It is a tricky question. It is a good question,” he said. “He comes across as very laidback, but when he is in the contest, he has pride in performance. Looking from the outside, you may think, ‘Does he really care?’. But I know that he has a lot of pride in performances. He doesn’t want to be embarrassed out there. He is competing 100%.”Bangladesh have brought on left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed as cover for Shakib, who is unlikely to bowl in the second Test. But Shakib’s fitness aside, they have other worries too – specifically with the bat. They were folded for 150 after India posted 404 in the first innings, before performing much better with the bat on the fourth day. However, late wickets meant survival would be difficult while chasing an improbable 513.Russell on debutant Zakir Hasan: “It was a no-brainer to pick him due to his confidence and form”•AFP/Getty Images

Domingo said that their top order “isn’t confident”, but the inclusion of Zakir Hasan was a timely one, as he brought recent runs from domestic and A cricket.”We wanted to compete. India is a good side, but once again, one bad session with the bat destroyed our chance in the match,” Domingo said. “Four-hundred is a good score, but it is manageable in Chittagong. We shouldn’t have been bowled out for 150 in the first innings. The most disappointing thing is the poor decision making from the batters.”There’s a lack of confidence in the top order. They are not managing to find a way to get out of the slump. There’s a whole host of players in the top five or six that haven’t played well or been as consistent as I had hoped. The young player who hasn’t played Tests with us is confident at the moment. He has shown us how to do it. He played really well.”Domingo was particularly disappointed at the timing of Litton Das’ dismissal on the fourth evening. He had built a nice defensive approach but six minutes before the tea break, dinked one straight to mid-on, playing what seemed like a half-hearted loft of Kuldeep.”I was disappointed with Litton’s dismissal, particularly the timing of it,” he said. “He is such a good player, so I am sure he’d be disappointed with it too. I can’t see Virat, Root, Smith or Marnus giving their wicket away in that sort of mode six minutes before tea. Litton is that good for us.”Domingo also explained that Mahmudul Hasan Joy and Mominul Haque were dropped due to lack of form.”It is based on the fact that domestically and for the A side, [Joy] hasn’t really got a lot of runs off late,” he said. “He hasn’t played international cricket for five to six months. It was a no-brainer to pick Zakir due to his confidence and form. That’s why Joy missed out.”Mominul got 10 of his 11 hundreds at this venue. He’d be the first to admit that in the last year, he hasn’t got the runs. But he is too good a player to not have around. You cannot lose a player of Mominul’s quality. He will definitely be considered for the second Test.”Mominul lacks confidence. He is under constant scrutiny, [and] pressure. He probably is trying too hard, listening to a lot of opinions, [and] trying a lot of things. He needs to go back to find his own to get runs. Some of the best players in the world have gone through slumps.”

Joe Root finished his first day as England’s captain on an unbeaten 184 as England fought back from a poor start at Lord’s to finish in a strong position

The Report by Alan Gardner06-Jul-2017
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsWin first toss: check. Score first hundred as captain: check. Bat through to the close: check. Joe Root stepped into the breach with England in a familiar spot of bother on the first day of the series and produced an equally familiar response to repel South Africa at Lord’s. If Root might have preferred his scriptwriters to provide a more solid base from which to begin his work in charge of the Test side, he could have barely a quibble with how his own day progressed.South Africa, on top after a morning session in which they claimed four wickets, contributed generously to Root’s cause. He was missed twice early on in his innings and then, during the evening session stumped off a no-ball; no sooner had Keshav Maharaj’s mistake been broadcast on the big screen, then Root was heading back to his crease for more. His next delivery was tapped through the covers for a single to bring up his 150, as cries of “Rooooot!” rolled down from the stands once again.On a glorious day with all the Lord’s trimmings, Root forged century stands with Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali to ensure England’s new regime got off to an fittingly exuberant start. Vernon Philander claimed three early wickets but mistakes crept into the South African effort. Root was not the only England batsman to benefit from being dismissed off a no-ball, with Stokes reprieved by an on-field call as Morne Morkel overstepped by a distance, also from the Nursery End.Stokes was not able to capitalise fully, top-edging a pull off Kagiso Rabada after tea to depart in frustration for 56. Rabada was the unlucky bowler on both occasions during the morning session with Root was given left-offs on 5 and 16; when he thought he might have had Root taken in the gully, after raising his fifty, South Africa’s review only succeeded in proving it had come off the batsman’s helmet (with Rabada’s boot right on the margin of delivering another no-ball).Having dug in to reach lunch on a dogged 33 and then steadily battled through to take tea on 79, Root moved through the gears during the evening session. Twice Rabada was left huffing as Root steered fours to third man to move into the 90s, before a dab for three off Maharaj made him the fourth England captain in succession to start his tenure with a century. His next fifty came off just 43 balls, including lofting Maharaj down the ground for six, and by the close he had skipped to the highest score by an England captain in their first Test.Things had not started so well, as England slipped to 49 for 3 and then 76 for 4 – a change of leader failing to imbue any greater degree of top-order stability – before Root and Stokes, newly installed as vice-captain, began the counter, adding exactly 100 together during the middle session. It was a similar response to when the effervescent pair lifted England from trouble on this ground against New Zealand two years ago, although they were made to work harder for their runs against a South Africa attack that was always threatening, despite the indiscipline.Stokes got off the mark with a clipped four through midwicket from his first delivery, and showed his touch with a crisp straight drive off Morkel after lunch, but his innings was an unusually watchful affair. He planted Maharaj into the pavilion benches midway through the afternoon and was a little fortunate to clear mid-on running back when he had 26; the scoreboard error that arose from Morkel’s no-ball when he had 44 led to Stokes twice acknowledging his fifty, the second time accompanied by a sheepish grin.England cracked on even after Stokes fell. With Moeen contributing a number of flowing drives at the other end, pushing his average at No. 7 towards 100, England’s sixth-wicket pair added 166 unbroken during a lengthy evening session. South Africa visibly seemed to flag as 38 runs bled from seven overs against the second new ball, with Root closing in on a double-century.Root had gained his first slice of luck by winning the toss on a pristine morning, and so it continued. His second scoring shot was an uppercut over the slips, suggesting his attacking instincts would remain untempered, before an attempted hook off Rabada cleared fine leg, where the substitute fielder Aiden Markram was standing in from the rope and the ball bounced behind him for four, and then a thick-edged drive at the same bowler hit the fingertips of JP Duminy in the gully. Authorities as diverse as Napoleon and Richie Benaud have noted the importance of a good leader being lucky.His decision to move back down to No. 4 (where his average is almost ten points higher) was immediately justified, though Gary Ballance’s return to Test cricket at first drop was less successful. Although Ballance struck a couple of attractive cover drives for four, South Africa’s judicious use of the short ball ensured he remained camped in the crease, which was to be his undoing when struck in front by a delivery from Morkel that nipped into him. A burned review added to England’s sense of waste.England’s Test summer had been launched amid nervous excitement and the clatter of early wickets, as South Africa immediately set about demonstrating why they are such indomitable tourists in this format. Philander removed both openers in his first spell, then switched to the Nursery End to trap Jonny Bairstow lbw shortly before lunch – Bairstow chose not to turn to the DRS, which was England’s first good review of the morning.The pitch, which had been cut first thing but retained a green tinge, demonstrated encouraging pace and carry from the start. “If there’s any moisture in the pitch, it’s going to be in this session,” Dean Elgar, South Africa’s stand-in captain, had suggested at the toss. That appeared a shrewd assessment, and there was also some turn on show – notably when Root walked past the delivery from Maharaj – but errors in the field took the shine off South Africa’s early optimism.It was 1983 the last time an English Test summer began as late as July but Lord’s was creaking into life as Root walked to the middle in his blazer to meet his obligations as England’s 80th Test captain, after a five-month wait. His predecessor, Alastair Cook, took his place back in the ranks but did not last long in his first Test innings without having to contend with the burden of captaincy. The first ball of Philander’s second over was by no means his most probing, a touch short and wide, but it drew Cook into an uncharacteristic fiddle off the back foot that sent a thin edge to the keeper.Philander claimed a five-wicket haul on his previous Test appearance on the ground, five years ago, and soon had his second this time around – though it owed more than a little to the (mis)judgment of both Keaton Jennings and umpire S Ravi. Philander rapped Jennings squarely on the pad, having straightened the ball off the seam, and Ravi raised his finger; Jennings then elected not to review after consulting with Ballance. Both decisions were proven to be erroneous, with Hawk-Eye suggesting the ball pitched fractionally outside leg and would have missed leg stump.It wasn’t the most auspicious of starts but, not for the first time, Root was working to his own script.

“I am trying to wrap my head around,” says the captain about his side’s lack of intensity against New Zealand at the Hagley Oval

Firdose Moonda19-Feb-2022Dean Elgar did not blame off-field issues, quarantine or the absence of a warm-up match for South Africa’s lack of intensity in the first Test in Christchurch but thinks his team may be trying too hard in their quest to compete.Like coach Mark Boucher, Elgar could not completely “wrap my head,” around how South Africa have gone from the highs of beating India a month ago to the low of their second-biggest Test defeat ever, but could not fault their effort despite acknowledging a lack in intensity.”The harder you try, the more you fail,” Elgar said, in reference to his bowlers’ inability to hold an end on a seamer-friendly surface. In 117.5 overs, South Africa only sent down 15 maiden overs, compared to New Zealand’s 28 in 91 overs across both innings, and allowed the hosts to bat them out of the match.”It’s extremely frustrating being a captain and the ball has been hit both sides of the wicket. You can’t set a field for that,” Elgar said. “That’s down to execution and the skills department. I can’t say it was nerves. We were so deep into the game, those nerves were out of our system. It’s extremely difficult to build pressure when runs are being scored on both sides of the wicket. It also boils down to guys trying too hard. The harder you try, the more you fail. That might have been a scenario but it’s not an excuse. It allowed their middle-to-lower order to come in and dictate the pace of play. That was down to us not being consistent enough.”Ultimately, though, South Africa lost the match in the first innings, when they were dismissed for their lowest total against New Zealand – 95 – and looked completely at sea against the moving ball on a green top. Although Elgar said it “would have been nice to have played a warm-up game,” in the build-up to the match he indicated conditions at Lincoln University, where South Africa trained, equipped them well for the Hagley Oval and agreed that not having a competitive fixture before the Tests was not a reason for their collapse. “I am not going to use quarantine as an excuse. We are here to represent our country and we need to be firing by the time match day comes. If that is an excuse, it’s a very weak excuse to be using.”Instead, he explained the batters’ issues as a case of being too defensive, with 13 of the dismissals coming from catches behind the wicket. “When the ball is going around a little bit, you still have to have a positive mindset. You will have to look to score but in the same breath, you have to remain pretty disciplined within your game plans. That ties in with our intensity. That is one area that I can put my finger on,” he said.While it is unfair to single out one batter from South Africa’s poor performance, the spotlight has fallen on opener-turned-No. 3 Aiden Markram, who averages less than 26 in his last 20 Tests and 9.7 in his last 10 innings. Elgar still backs Markram as a quality player who is one good innings away from glory but admitted there is an issue around his form, which is probably caused by the same over-eagerness that affected the attack. “It’s not foreign that he has been struggling. I am sure that conversation will come up with the selectors,” Elgar said. “Maybe it’s the mental game he is fighting.”We know he is a quality player. He is only one innings away from turning a lot of things around for him. It’s also the same case of trying too hard. The conversation around his position has been in the media. The selectors have to have conversations around that. It’s a very valid question around him as a person and his capacity in the side. He needs to stop trying so hard. Naturally he is a gifted player and he is one score away from turning things around.”File photo – Aiden Markram and Dean Elgar runs between the wickets•AFP via Getty Images

Markam was moved down into the spot Keegan Petersen left vacant when he contracted Covid-19 but essentially operated as an opener in this match and could find himself benched when Petersen returns for the home series against Bangladesh, or sooner. South Africa have Ryan Rickelton, who is averaging over 100 in first-class cricket this season with three hundreds from his last five innings, in reserve. They were considering playing him in the first Test and will likely do so again in the second. It would seem a no-brainer, even though Boucher said the team management decided a line-up with Rickleton was, “how we felt the line-up needed to be,” and selection convener Victor Mpitsang told ESPNcricinfo Rickleton was overlooked because Zubayr Hamza has more experience.Elgar was asked if he was happy with team selection and indicated he was, with the debate in his mind over the ratio of batters to bowlers, rather than which batters were being used. “I was very comfortable with the XI we selected. I am a captain that is pro having a spinner from a stability point of view but history tells you at the Hagley Oval, spin doesn’t have much effect. Playing in foreign conditions you have to go with what history tells you,” he said. “I was comfortable with the four-seamer approach, knowing that against India we only used four seamers. As I sit here now, I am pretty comfortable with the 7-4 split but the next few days will be interesting for us on this very topic.”After losing in three days, South Africa have given themselves two extra days off before the second Test starts on Friday and Elgar said they will use the time to mull over selection and ponder why they appeared so flat in the first Test, knowing that it is not the myriad off-field issues that continue to plague South African cricket. “It’s not foreign to us with regards to what’s been happening off the field. As a group we’ve worked through that and worked it out already. I don’t see that as being an influence in our camp,” he said. “It (the poor performance) is something I am also trying to wrap my head around. I was trying to process it last night and still haven’t come to anything yet. Hopefully in the next day or two I’ll be able to put my finger on why.”

“If we were to have a 60-run partnership upfront tomorrow morning, that puts us in a good position”

Firdose Moonda13-Jan-2022South Africa’s team of “good cricketers without superstars” has to band together one final time to deny India the chance to make history, and it’s not going to be easy. That’s Lungi Ngidi’s assessment of a series that will come down to a couple of sessions on the penultimate day of the third Test and has made for gripping viewing throughout.”We are not going in there with a team of superstars,” Ngidi said. “We’ve got good cricketers and good cricketing brains, and it’s always a team effort. There are going to be moments where someone is going to have to put up their hand. If someone is not taking wickets, you make sure you keep the runs down, and if it’s your day, you make sure you cash in.”Related

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Ngidi was referring to a question about his own performance in the second session of the third day when he took three wickets in six overs to reduce India from 152 for 4 to 170 for 7. Ngidi started by removing Virat Kohli, who had batted for more than three hours and faced 143 balls for 29 runs, and then had R Ashwin and Shardul Thakur caught off loose strokes, but more notable than the names, it was the manner in which he took his wickets. After making his name as the kind of bowler who hits the deck hard, Ngidi operated completely differently at Newlands by pitching it up and finding swing. He listed this as one of his best series, especially “against this calibre of players” and despite it being “testing at times.”Though bowlers appear to have had it easier than batters in this series, Ngidi explained that it has been challenging for seamers to get their lengths right on surfaces that have not been entirely consistent in bounce. “The ball has been doing something the entire Test series,” he said. “There are patches on the wicket where if you hit it, it does something a little more than others. And we could see, with patience, guys could score hundreds out there, there have been two 70s already, so with the right application, there are runs in the wicket. As a bowler, if you hit the right areas, there are wickets as well.”The match won’t last five days – and if you take into account the rain-affected day in Centurion, none of the Tests has – but Ngidi praised the surfaces, especially this Newlands one. “It’s a good cricketing wicket. Everyone is in the game. It’s pretty evenly matched out.”He sees the match hinging on whether Keegan Petersen will find someone to post a half-century stand with or whether South Africa’s middle order will fold against the relentless Indian pace attack. “If we were to have a 60-run partnership upfront tomorrow morning, that puts us in a good position. If they were to take early wickets, that shifts it to them. It’s perfectly poised at the moment.”India know that too. Kohli was heard on the stump microphone reminding both his team and South Africa how much was at stake. “Just relax guys,” he told Dean Elgar and Petersen. “I can hear your heartbeat.”That’s understandable. As Elgar said before the match, this is South Africa’s biggest Test in the last decade and winning it could complete what has been a very slow turnaround from losing to Sri Lanka at home three summers ago and slipping to No. 8 in the rankings. There’s enormous expectation, at home, and from far away. For instance, in Guyana, South Africa’s Under-19 players, who are gearing up for their World Cup campaign, are keeping an eye. Their captain George van Heerden said they’re unlikely to wake up in the middle of the night to watch but are prepared to find out the results as soon as possible. “The management team have all got their laptops out and we are all watching from there,” he said at a press conference.India, meanwhile, will be eyeing their first Test series win in South Africa. On their last tour here, they won the final Test in Johannesburg. That South African team had superstars. This one, in Ngidi’s words, just believes that “everyone has got to perform when they are asked to”.

The fast bowler has tweaked a problematic action with inputs from coach Ottis Gibson and is ‘champing’ to work his way back

Firdose Moonda08-Nov-2017Chris Morris’ search for speed caused the back injury that has sidelined him for the last four months. As a result, he has had to modify his action.Morris suffered a lower-back problem in England in August, which ruled him out of the fourth Test in Manchester and all action since. He expects to make a return midway through the Ram Slam, for the Titans, and when he does, it will not be at the expense of pace but with a smoother, better approach which the new coach Ottis Gibson has helped him with.”I’ve had a few tweaks in my action that Ottis has changed. I had to iron it out because it wasn’t good enough – simple as that,” Morris said at the Ram Slam launch in Johannesburg. “I think in striving for a bit of extra pace, there was some twisting in my action. I’ve got quite a bad kick-out with my left foot before I land. I was getting lazy and doing quite a lot of twisting, which caused a lot of pressure on my lower back and inevitably caused the injury.”A hallmark of Morris’ performances in England was his pace, particularly when Faf du Plessis gave him freedom to “be aggressive and bowl fast.” The directive paid off in the short term as Morris dismissed Joe Root and Alastair Cook in an impressive spell at Trent Bridge but caused a long-term concern.Though Morris did not break or tear anything, he suffered inflammation and strain in the muscles of the lower back. If left untreated, it could have caused a stress fracture. Part of the treatment was making the changes to his action that should keep Morris symptom-free, though he knows he may respond adversely at any time.”If I didn’t get injured I still would have had to change my action. In bowling, you like to work in straight lines, and I was working along the wrong lines. That’s where the injury came along,” he explained. “We can’t re-scan the same injury because we’d see the same thing the whole time. So we work on symptoms – if there is pain you stop, otherwise you play. I’ve got to trust the gym and rehab, all the things I’ve been doing behind the scenes since my injury happened.”Like Morris, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander and Wayne Parnell have also been doing undergoing intensive rehabilitation. Philander also had a lower back problem and returned to action in the first-class competition, with good results – he took five wickets and scored 80 for the Cobras. Steyn, Morkel and Parnell will all be back at some stage of the Ram Slam, which means that when the time comes for choosing a Test squad – first to face Zimbabwe in the inaugural four-day Test on Boxing Day and then to play India – there will be competition.Gibson has already flung the door open for Steyn, saying as long as the premier pacer thinks he can make it through a match, he will play. Morris cannot expect the same hospitality, given his relative inexperience especially at Test level. But he was encouraged by Gibson’s approach and is confident he can work his way back.”It’s always good to know that the coach is backing the guys who aren’t playing, especially with injuries because that’s part of the game,” Morris said. “If a youngster is better than me he must play, it’s as simple as that, but I’m always going to be fighting for my spot because playing for South Africa is what I want to do. If I never play for South Africa again it’s cool, but I’m going to give it my best shot. I’m obviously champing at the bit. It hurt me quite a lot to see the guys running around this morning and playing soccer, so I’ve got quite a lot of motivation.”Morris is particularly looking forward to working more with Gibson, whose experience with England he is hoping to draw on.”I’ve only had a week and a half with him and he’s been excellent. In England, he had the fortune of working with the best new-ball attack in the world in my opinion. If they’ve rubbed off on him, as a South African bowling attack we’re going to be richer for it,” Morris said. “He’s been doing this for a long time and has a lot of experience. It’s quite clear what our plans are going forward as a team. We’re in a happy space, and it’s quite exciting.”

Varun Chopra made 98 against his former county as Essex gradually made their superiority tell and the result of that might be that they are one day from the title

ECB Reporters Network13-Sep-20171:36

The latest shifts of fortune encapsulated in our Specsavers Championship round-up

Warwickshire 201 (Sibley 76, Porter 4-62, Harmer 4-47) and 7 for 0 trail Essex 369 for 9 dec (Chopra 98, Lawrence 78, Foster 68, Barker 3-71) by 161 runsEssex’s advance towards the Specsavers County Championship title this summer has included some spectacular days – this wasn’t one of them but still brought a strong stride towards glory as they built a commanding position against Warwickshire at Edgbaston.Replying to 201, Ryan ten Doeschate’s men made 369 for 9, a lead of 168, before declaring late in the day to give Warwickshire two awkward overs batting.The home side survived those unscathed on seven without loss but will have to bat with a resilience that has invariably been sorely lacking from them this season to get out of this hole. With nearest rivals Lancashire in trouble, having followed on at Taunton, Essex are on the threshold of the title.With plenty of time at their disposal, Essex’s batsmen built a position from which they will aim to close out victory on the third day. It was a collective effort led by Varun Chopra, Dan Lawrence and James Foster to which all the top eight, other than the skipper, contributed. After bowling well as a unit, the Division One leaders batted well as a unit, sustaining pressure on their opponents. The stuff of champions.Essex resumed on the second day on 69 without loss and lost two wickets in a morning. Opening pair Chopra and Nick Browne added 72 before the latter edged Keith Barker to second slip. Tom Westley batted sweetly for 28 until he nicked England team-mate Chris Woakes behind, after which Chopra and Lawrence put on 92 in 29 overs. The princely Chopra was within two runs of a century against his former team-mates when he perished lbw to medium-pacer Matt Lamb.Varun Chopra made 98 against his former county•Getty Images

Lawrence’s aggressive innings threatened to take the game away from Warwickshire rapidly but the beleaguered home side stuck to their task and hit back with two wickets in four balls for Ryan Sidebottom. Lawrence cut to gully and ten Doeschate played on for a third-ball duck.When Ravi Bopara fell lbw to Barker, Essex had lost four wickets for 51 runs in 17 overs and but Foster and Simon Harmer calmly eased the total upward with a partnership of 76 in 23 overs.Woakes ended that stand with an in-ducker which pinned Harmer, Neil Wagner edged Barker and, after Foster fell lbw to Jeetan Patel, Essex pulled out. Tomorrow they could be pulling out the corks on the champagne.