09:21
afternoon from azbados, where the 80 minutes of hardworking work of Tom Westley and Dan Lawrence on either side of the lunch come to an end. Lawrence is the man to score 30, Oliver Hannon-Dalby hammering the off-stump, screaming for LBW and then going slightly fuller with a ball, hitting the inside edge and hitting his wood. trembled. Essex have scored 102 for three, surpassing the last three figures.
09:14
09:04
08:53
08:18
08:09
08:06
lunchtime score
07:56
07:49
07:39
No Brownies for the Oval’s Charming HacksSad, but there’s a whole house of alternative milks with soy, oats, coconut, almond and cow milk at our hot drink station. On the pitch, Matt Renshaw begins milking Surrey’s bowlers, scoring six runs in an over off Sam Curran, as many as he had scored in the previous 10 overs, swiftly hitting a boundary off Craig Overton, and 11 runs. Make it In his first 60 balls, he has defeated 10 out of 10.
07:33
07:20
07:15
It’s a knight to remember (sorry) For Will Rhodes, who saw Alastair Cook lbw for 23 and Essex 37 for two after 15 overs. Lovely set-up from the Warwickshire captain, who slammed one back and beat the inside edge after one out off delivery. Dan Lawrence joins Tom Westley in the middle, the start of the season was low-key – 7, 17, 0 – since returning from the Caribbean
07:14
Updates
06:58
06:51
In the Oval:
Somerset have made a good start at Ovala after deciding to bat: After 10 overs only one ball had gone for more than one, they were tiptoing with 1.3 per over and they lost their first wicket, Tom Lamonby caught by Ollie Pope off Reece Topley. The first major excitement was due to Somerset giving their hosts an incorrect team sheet, details of which were duly relayed to the crowd. Roelof van der Merwe isn’t actually playing, and Jack Brooks is. Somerset 14-1.
06:49
06:36
06:33
06:25
Greetings from Edgbaston, [Hello Ali!] Where it usually follows tropical weather and the boys of Essex are in town. We’ve got a very short boundary to the left when I look to the city and what looks like a good pitch in the middle – hence the decision to bat by the visitors if they win the toss. So it started with Alastair Cook and Nick Brown against the new-ball pair of Oliver Hannon-Dalby and Liam Norwell, the latter missing the run-fest versus Surrey due to a bad back. A squirt four for Cook during an otherwise check.. oh, a wicket… OHD lures Brown with a wide and the edge flies behind the stumps for a diving Michael Burgess. Essex hit six for one in the fifth over of the day.
06:23
06:06
06:03
Morning Tanya, morning everyone. [Hello Simon in south London!], The bell has just rang at The Oval, where one of the major changes I’ve noticed from last season is the wall outside the Vauxhall End/JM Finn stand. Established in 2005 amid some fanfare, until last year there were some unsightly dead sections and since then it seems that drastic action has been taken, replacing the real plants with plastic ones. I’m sure there’s a metaphor out there somewhere.
Updates
06:01
05:57
05:13
Updates
05:08
Updates
05:08
Round 3
05:08
Preface
Updates