SECOND XI REPORT: Browne century helps Essex fight back
An unbeaten 145 by Essex opener Nick Browne and an unbroken seventh wicket partnership of 194 between Browne and Nav Dwivedi helped Essex fight back from 125-5 to reach 367-7 on the first day of this Second XI Championship game at Billericay.
Ollie Sutton and Charlie Parkinson claimed a brace of wickets apiece on a day that started well for the Red Rose attack before the hosts' afternoon rally.
Browne and Robin Das opened with 34 run alliance after Das had won the toss before the Essex skipper edged Sutton to second slip for 17. Two balls later Jamal Richards departed in similar manner finding Arav Shetty at third slip as Lancashire made early inroads.
Simon Fernandez helped Browne rebuild with an 86-run partnership that took Essex to 120-2 by lunch but he departed without adding to his 65 run innings straight after the break after being bowled by a superb inswinging yorker from Joe Chapple.
That was the first of three wickets to fall for 5 runs in 32 balls as Parkinson removed Ayaan Malik for 4, caught at cover, and Johnny Connell for an 11-ball duck with a lifting delivery taken at gully by Joe Moores to have Essex 125-5.
Browne and Ali Zeb steadied the innings by adding 48 runs until Zeb edged Tom Aspinwall to wicketkeeper George Bell for 21 at the halfway stage of the day with the hosts 173-6.
But that was as good as it got for Lancashire as the vastly experienced Browne found excellent support from Dwivedi over the second half of the day.
Browne reached his century from 199 balls soon after tea with the hundred partnership following from 188 balls.
Dwivedi (83 not out) reached his fifty off 120 balls while Browne got to the 150-run mark from 253 balls to complete a great recovery by the close, setting a new record for the seventh wicket against Lancashire in the Second XI Championship when passing the 178-mark set jointly by R. Pepper & S.N.V. Waterton for Kent at Old Trafford in 1982, and by C.M. Falconer & T.N. Walallawita for Middlesex at Liverpool in 2024.