MATCH REPORT: Lancashire suffer defeat in Chelmsford
Lancashire suffered an innings defeat on Day Three against Essex at Chelmsford as Jamie Porter, Shane Snater, Sam Cook and Simon Harmer picked up the nine remaining wickets..
The Essex pace bowlers exploited a pitch playing low by taking three wickets apiece as Lancashire were beaten in just 41 overs for the second time in the match.
Porter set the ball rolling with the first of nine Lancashire wickets to fall in the session to finish with 3-24 before Snater took his match figures to 7-59 with 3-17 in the second innings.
Essex’s second win of the season, worth 22 points, took them further clear at the top of the Vitality County Championship with only three games played.
Lancashire had started day three on 10-1 requiring another 221 runs to make Essex bat again. They lost five wickets in the first hour and never recovered with the game wrapped up in extra time before the scheduled lunch interval.
11 balls into Ronnie McKenna's debut first-team appearance, he was celebrating a first significant contribution as nightwatchman Will Williams edged Porter into his gloves having hung around for 36 balls.
That precipitated a catastrophic collapse with four wickets falling in 16 balls. Josh Bohannon lasted 25 balls before he walked across a ball from Cook and was lbw, while Luke Wells was beaten all ends up by Snater to be bowled for a 54-ball 21.
In the same Snater over, George Balderson saw the umpire’s finger go up as he played down the wrong line before Tom Bruce had his off stump sent cartwheeling by Porter.
There was a 10-over hiatus while Matty Hurst and George Bell put on 30 runs before the wicketkeeper scooped Snater into square leg’s hands.
Off-spinner Simon Harmer had not bowled much on this seamer’s paradise, but in his fourth over of the innings he had Tom Bailey walking down the wicket and patting the ball back for a simple caught and bowled.
Next over Jack Blatherwick followed Bailey’s lead and gave Harmer more catching practice by chipping the ball back to the bowler.
Bell had hung around for 40 balls and appeared to be heading for a third fifty in four innings at Chelmsford when he nicked Cook to Dean Elgar at first slip to wrap up the match.