County Championship: Essex lose 16 wickets on day three in big defeat by Northants

Essex head coach Anthony McGrath says Alastair Cook still hasn't made up his mind about his future

Northamptonshire seamer Jack White rounded off the County Championship campaign with a five-wicket haul as his relegated side bowed out of Division One in style by crushing runners-up Essex.

White, who received Northamptonshire's supporters' player of the season award during the lunch interval, achieved a century of first-class wickets as the visitors were hustled out for 211 in their first innings at Wantage Road.

That snuffed out Essex's hopes of denying Surrey another title - and, having been put in again, they promptly collapsed to 119 all out, with Paul Walter's pugnacious 73 from 53 balls their only significant contribution.

White claimed the final wicket to finish with 5-57 - his 50th Championship scalp of the season - while former England captain Alastair Cook made just six.

Essex resumed on 125-4, but their already slim hopes of amassing the runs required to prolong the title race were dented further as Tom Taylor's first ball of the morning sent two of Walter's stumps flying.

Former Northamptonshire player Adam Rossington drilled to mid-on before Essex skipper Tom Westley got stuck on 49 and was eventually undone by a beauty from opposite number Luke Procter that pitched, left him and took a faint edge through to Lewis McManus.

Procter pinned Simon Harmer leg before to finish with figures of 3-47, but Umesh Yadav opted to throw the bat.

Sam Cook joined in, steering Taylor for successive fours to lift the Essex total above 200 but Yadav holed out to deep mid-wicket before last man Jamie Porter was castled by Taylor to confirm the Championship pennant would remain in Surrey's possession.

• Essex leave Cook to think about future

Having not managed to supplement his three wickets from the previous evening, Sanderson made amends for that in the first over of the follow-on, with Nick Browne misjudging a ball that jagged back to hit off stump.

The carnage continued after the interval and within seven overs, the visitors had collapsed to 13-5, with Sanderson and White claiming another two wickets apiece.

Those included Cook, caught behind nibbling outside off stump at Sanderson, while Justin Broad's tumbling cover catch accounted for Westley and Emilio Gay pouched two at second slip.

Walter launched a bold counter-attack with a series of front-foot drives, while Rossington kept him company for 35 minutes despite playing just a single scoring stroke as the pair shepherded Essex to 50.

Taylor broke the partnership with an unplayable delivery that kept low and seamed back to uproot Rossington's off stump, but Walter kept going and advanced to his half-century with a cover boundary off White.

Rob Keogh's first over of off-spin cost 19 runs, with Walter twice dispatching him over the stand before White eventually got his man, tempting the left-hander to pull a short ball and top-edge to Saif Zaib in the deep.

That paved the way for White to apply the finishing touch and he bowled Harmer before clipping Yadav's off bail to wrap up Northamptonshire's second win of the season - their first by an innings in more than two years.

Northamptonshire paceman Ben Sanderson:

"It was still doing quite a lot, but I didn't expect us to roll them as quickly as that. Credit to our bowlers. Jack White has been phenomenal all season and deserved his wickets. He was just class.

"That game against Warwickshire where we gave ourselves no chance of winning, the shift we put in to try and win the game gave us a lift and more confidence. It's belief, really and once you've got that feeling it is infectious throughout the team.

"Then going to The Oval and watching Karun Nair bat how he did filled the dressing-room with even more confidence.

"We know we're not far away when we're turning over the top few teams in the country. For us to put those performances in shows how good we could have been, it's just a shame we didn't do it sooner.

"We're in a good position in terms of our squad. If we can keep the same lads, improve our batting form and maybe add a bit more bowling strength with an overseas, we should be contenders."

Essex head coach Anthony McGrath:

Obviously we're disappointed. Even coming in this morning, we thought if we could get up to 400 and Hampshire kept playing as they were, there might be a miracle on the cards.

"We gave it everything and it just wasn't meant to be, but congratulations to Surrey. They've had a brilliant season and are deserving champions.

"I can't fault the guys, they've given everything and we won six games on the spin to give ourselves a chance. On the whole we've been magnificent but sometimes it doesn't go your way.

"You fight for six months and with two days before the end of the season, we still had a chance to win it.

"As soon as we were bowled out below 400, there's devastation because we wanted first place and, once that was gone, the rest was irrelevant to us."

Report supplied by ECB Reporters' Network.