Warwickshire fight back after Essex declaration

Essex batter Charlie Allison hit 133, including 17 fours and two sixes

Rothesay County Championship Division One, Ambassador Cruise Line Ground, Chelmsford (day two)

Essex 602-6d: Westley 148, Allison 133, Pepper 107*, Walter 86; Malik 1-7

Warwickshire 140-2: Davies 58, Mousley 54*; Critchley 2-48

Warwicks (1 pt) trail Essex (4 pts) by 462 runs

Match scorecard

Dan Mousley lead the Warwickshire fightback to Essex's mammoth first-innings total with an innings that belied the gravity of the situation facing the visitors in their County Championship match at Chelmsford.

The imposing right-hander clocked up only his third half-century of the season, but at a rate of more than a run-a-ball. It was in contrast to his more measured captain Alex Davies, who went along at half the rate in a second-innings stand of 86 that pulled Warwickshire back into the game.

Though Davies departed for 52 from 116 balls, stumped by the alert Michael Pepper to give Matt Critchley a second wicket of the innings, Mousley was still there at the end with 54 from 53 balls and Warwickshire 140-2.

It had been a chastening day and a half in the field for Warwickshire after Davies put Essex in. The home side rattled up 602-5 declared on an unresponsive, green-tinged pitch.

Along the way there were three Essex centurions, curiously all scoring their third three-figure scores of the season. Tom Westley's 134 was followed by Charlie Allison and Michael Pepper, who combined in a 38-over, sixth-wicket stand of 195, the largest partnership in an innings of large partnerships.

Either side of a mid-afternoon rain break, it was carnage as the pair sensed the impending declaration and went for broke. The declaration duly arrived when Allison departed after four hours, caught at deep mid-wicket for 133 from 202 balls. That left Pepper unbeaten on 107 from just 117 balls.

It would not have escaped Warwickshire's notice that Allison was not even in the Essex XI announced at the toss, but was drafted in at short notice, without argument, when Simon Harmer dropped out for "personal reasons".

Before his partnership with Pepper, Allison also put on 91 for the fifth wicket with Westley. 57 of them in the morning. Westley added 24 to his overnight 124 before he was finally dismissed after a stay of more than six hours, caught at short fine leg turning Beau Webster off his legs. Significantly, the pair had carried Essex to a fourth batting point with four balls to spare.

Westley had laced his 278-ball innings with 17 fours, a large portion of them driven elegantly through the covers. At the other end, Allison followed closely in Westley's footsteps, punching fours through the off-side, though also comfortable enough to reverse-sweep Corey Rocchiccioli for four. He reached his fifty from 85 balls when he turned the Australian off-spinner for a single.

The incoming Pepper did not hang about. He swept Rocchiccioli for an emphatic boundary to get off the mark and added four more with a late cut off Webster.

The wicketkeeper-batsman went to lunch on 33, at which point he was presented with his county cap; little more than quarter-of-an-hour after the restart he had reached his half-century with a tap into the off-side off Rob Yates.

Despite his rate of scoring, Pepper was beaten to his hundred by Allison, who helped a wayward legside delivery from Mousley for his 14th boundary.

After a 25-minute rain break, Pepper made it to his century, having taken just two hours and 15 minutes of improvised nudges and paddles. Two balls later he celebrated by driving Yates straight for six. Not long afterwards Warwickshire were put out of their misery.

Essex found the Kookaburra ball just as unhelpful when Warwickshire set out with the initial target of 453 to avoid following on.

Yates and Davies made a competent start, passing 50 in 21 overs, Davies hammering Jamie Porter for successive boundaries before Matt Critchley made the breakthrough. Given the rare opportunity to take the main spin-bowling role in Harmer's absence, Critchley had Yates retreating on to the backfoot and lbw to one that turned and reared up.

Mousley brought Critchley down to earth when he slammed him straight back down the ground for six and reached his fifty from 46 balls.

Report supplied by ECB Reporters' Network, supported by Rothesay