Porter threatens before light closes in

Essex 360 (Foster 98, Pettini 68, Nijjar 53, Azharullah 4-74) and 216 for 5 dec (ten Doeschate 43*) drew with Northamptonshire 275 (Kleinveldt 52) and 92 for 4
Scorecard

The LV=County Championship Division Two clash between Essex and Northamptonshire at Chelmsford ended in a draw after bad light brought a curtailment in play with the visitors 92 for 4 in pursuit of 302 for victory from a minimum of 56 overs.

Northamptonshire were soon on the back foot when David Murphy became the first of two wickets for Jamie Porter when he played across the line and was bowled for 7 with only 12 runs on the board.

Porter then took his haul of Championship wickets to 46 for the current campaign when bringing a ball back into Alex Wakely who shouldered arms and was bowled for 17 to leave his side 48 for 2 and Essex with hopes of victory.

Their hopes were dented by bad light and a vigilant innings by opener Ben Duckett who stood firm to reach the close with an unbeaten 34 having batted for 109 minutes.

The first stoppage because of poor light came shortly before tea with Northamptonshire 64 for 2. Seven overs were lost but on the resumption, 18 runs had been added when Rob Keogh was run out.

With the light deteriorating and two slow bowlers operating, Keogh had scored 17 and was backing-up when he was left stranded by a direct throw by substitute fielder Aaron Beard at cover and who had just come onto the field for Ravi Bopara.

Three runs later, Aron Nijjar breached the defences of Josh Cobb who was bowled without scoring. That left Essex with 25 overs at their disposal in search of the win but the light was to have the final say. Just three more overs had been bowled when umpires Martin Bodenham and Martin Saggers again called a halt to proceedings.

This time the suspension of play cut into the final hour and both captains subsequently agreed on the draw.

Earlier, Essex added 161 runs with the last 65 coming off nine overs after lunch as Ryan ten Doeschate and Mark Pettini raised the tempo to set up the declaration. The pair posted an unbroken 77 runs for the sixth wicket contributing 43 and 37 respectively with an array of cleanly struck drives on both sides of the wicket before the declaration came on 216 for 5.

A series of Essex batsmen had played themselves in before going onto make a significant score. Teenager Dan Lawrence hit 36 and Bopara 25 whilst Tom Westley and Jesse Ryder posted scores of 20 and 29 before both became victims of former Essex pace bowler Maurice Chambers who produced a beauty of a delivery to bowl Westley who played back to a ball of fuller length.

Chambers finished with 2 for 47 from 16 overs and Ollie Stone whose consistent line of attack brought him 2 for 55.

The visitors started the day with two substitute fielders. One was for Murphy who aggravated a thumb injury towards the close of the third day and had passed the wicketkeeping gauntlets to Duckett. The second substitute fielder stood in for Richard Levi who broke a knuckle when batting on day two.

Overall, 106 overs were lost to the elements during the match. Essex collect 12 points and Northamptonshire nine.