Essex stay in promotion hunt

Essex 328 (Foster 108, Napier 62, Ryder 58, Stevens 5-83, Claydon 4-76) and 22 for 1 beat Kent 198 (Northeast 117, Billings 51, Masters 3-44, Napier 3-44) and 151 (Napier 4-28) by nine wickets
Scorecard

Essex completed the formality of scoring the 22 runs needed at the start of day three to beat Kent at Chelmsford, with the victory wrapped up in 18 deliveries with a winning margin of nine wickets.

With a haul of 22 points from the match, Essex improved their prospects of promotion and their status in 2015 could yet depend on the outcome of their final match of the summer, when they entertain Division Two leaders Worcestershire at Chelmsford in just under two weeks. In the meantime, they travel to Grace Road to meet bottom of the table Leicestershire starting next Monday.

Left-hander Nick Browne had struck a well-timed straight drive to the boundary in Mitch Claydon's opening over but then, facing Matt Hunn's first ball of the day, he misjudged the line and was leg-before. The bowler, though, blotted his copybook by sending his next delivery for five wides and seven runs came from the over.

The winning runs were attained in the next over. Tom Westley reached the ropes when facing Claydon before collecting three runs from the next ball, leaving Jaik Mickleburgh to score the outstanding two runs required two balls later.

After completing their fourth Championship win from their last five matches, Essex head coach Paul Grayson said: "We are in good form right now but we realise we probably have to win our last two games. But the team are playing well, they are full of confidence and I thought our bowling unit was outstanding in this game."

Kent were bowled out for 198 and 151 in the match, slipping to 37 for 5 on the first morning, while Essex's first innings produced 328 with James Foster's 108 backed up by half-centuries from Jesse Ryder and Graham Napier. The latter also took seven wickets in the match.

"The pitch offered a little bit more than everyone thought it would on the first day but even so, it was a great bowling display and the century from James Foster and the innings from Graham Napier set up the game for us," Grayson said. "But it was a really outstanding performance from everyone."

Kent captain Rob Key said: "It was in interesting pitch, it started wet in the middle and dry at the ends so it was going to seam and also take spin. It was always going to be a big first session for us but unfortunately we just didn't get through it. It would have been interesting if we had been able to set them 200 in the last innings but they got too far in front. The ball started to spin a fair amount for Monty Panesar yesterday and we had two spinners so it could have been a very interesting game of cricket.''