As I now live in Hampshire and only get to see Essex when they visit the Ageas Bowl, it is a big night for me as I still root for Essex.
Yes it was a vital win for the Eagles to maintain their momentum. Yes Ravi's last over was brilliant to secure the win, but I feel special mention must be made of Graham Napier, as he bowled the ball of the night to dismiss Vince, head and shoulders above any other batsman on view, even Westley.
While Vince was at the crease, there was only going to be one winner, and it was not Essex. So the wonderful slower ball to clean bowl Vince was for me the pivotal moment of the game.
For me it was a very curious sort of underwhelming game, with little urgency between both teams. Essex with some very timid and passive batting by Bopara especially, totally negated the impressive start. I know Ravi has recently come into some form, but he was almost unrecognisable from the exciting batsman seen in previous years. Perhaps the weight of captaincy lies heavily on his shoulders.
The choice of Zaidi at number four was interesting. I assumed he had been promoted to maintain the run rate, a latter day pinch hitter. However, although he top scored and brought off the occasional good shot, he chewed up many balls, flailing away, reverse sweeping(missing) in desperation. When facing Afridi's first two overs, he could not put bat on ball, thus failing to rotate the strike and how he was not dismissed three or four times by Afridi, was a miracle.
He fell between two stools, and thus put pressure on later batsmen to catch up for scoreless periods. No one objects to a pinch hitter getting out, provided he has actually pinch hit. But the gallant Zaidi, lost the plot, and thought he was a batsman, there to build an innings, not to score much needed quick runs, at the risk of sacrificing his wicket.
This might seem churlish as he was voted man of the match, and bowled very effectively, the point is that either his role was not made sufficiently clear to him, or he had been promoted above his ability. He is very dangerous as an attacking 7 or 8, but last night he floundered for large parts of his innings.
Promoting Ten Doeschate would have been far more valuable. He runs aggressively, putting fielders under pressure, and most importantly, he hits boundaries. After the Gloucester non show, a few weeks back, I remember one contributor making the excellent point, that boundaries win T20 matches, and that Essex seem to have lost that skill and been guilty of batting too passively. Ravi take note.
I was thrilled that Essex had sneaked home, but could not help feeling, that neither side appeared to actually want to win the match, which meant much more to Essex than Hampshire.
Hampshire gifted Essex several wickets, none more so than Carberry, very well judged boundary catch by Westley, and Irvine, often a big thorn in opponents' sides.
I was also bemused at Walter bowling only one over, and Lawrence bowling three fairly expensive overs. Am I mistaken in thinking that Walter is a specialist bowler and Lawrence a part time bowler, but one that great efforts are being made to mould into a spinner. I can understand him bowling an opening over, similar to Smith for Hampshire in recent years, but to persist with him, when leaking runs, is dubious.
I will no doubt be shot down for some of my views, but I am only concerned because I want Essex to improve and progress. The Essex I remember in past years is a side that always seem to want to do things the hard way. Nothing was ever simple for them. Plus ca change!!
At least they are unpredictable. One should be grateful for that. It is about time they won something again, how about the T20 this year?
, also allowed Lawrence to have an innings but when one thinks that Tendo, Lawrence, and Foster
