Essex skittle Notts but title hopes fade
Jamie Porter has picked up five-wicket hauls in his last two County Championship matches
- Published
Vitality County Championship Division One, Cloud County Ground, Chelmsford (day three)
Essex 457: Westley 122, Pepper 115
Nottinghamshire 93: Porter 5-35, Harmer 4-16 & 180-2 (f/o): Hameed 100*
Notts (2 pts) trail Essex (7 pts) by 184 runs
Essex skittled Nottinghamshire for just 93 to nudge closer to an emphatic victory on a bittersweet day three at Chelmsford.
Jamie Porter and Simon Harmer shared nine first-innings wickets as Essex bowled out Notts in a frantic first session.
Seam bowler Porter (5-35) took his third five-wicket haul of the season and his best figures of the campaign that included three wickets in five balls.
Harmer also claimed his best bowling figures of the summer with 4-16 from 12.5 overs and then took the first two wickets of Nottinghamshire’s second innings.
Allied with a season’s best 51 during Essex’s 457 all out, it was a welcome return to form for off-spinner Harmer who has been dogged by persistent injury.
Nottinghamshire’s inability to cope with Porter’s pace and Harmer’s guile on a wicket which had become less benign overnight, left them 364 runs adrift after their first innings.
When they followed on, captain Haseeb Hameed led the fightback with an unbeaten 100 and put on an unbroken 131 with Joe Clarke (62 not out) for the third wicket.
Nottinghamshire were 180-2 at the close, still 184 runs from making Essex bat again.
It was the perfect riposte from Essex on the day the ECB confirmed their 12-point deduction after Feroze Khushi was found to have used an illegally-sized bat in the reverse fixture at Trent Bridge in April.
It does, however, end their dwindling hopes of challenging for the title.
Nottinghamshire’s first innings fell apart spectacularly on a chilly morning as 48-1 became to 93 all out, with nine wickets clattering in 87 minutes.
Ben Slater (29) and Freddie McCann (11) added 31 to their overnight score, but then Harmer struck with his first ball when the latter became the first of five lbws in the morning.
Harmer had two of the next three wickets to fall as Slater was snaffled at slip and Jack Haynes was the second lbw victim.
Porter had Clarke (13) pinned in front in his first over before Kyle Verreynne’s nine-ball cameo ended on 12 by the same bowler.
Lyndon James (7) completed Porter’s three-quick-wicket burst, mainly thanks to Michael Pepper's stunning full-length dive.
Porter trapped Luke Fletcher for a golden duck, and Liam Patterson-White (8) also fell lbw before Harmer wrapped things up by having Rob Lord (1) caught.
Following on, Hameed and Slater looked comfortable for a dozen overs after lunch before Harmer bowled the latter for eight and trapped McCann in front for a second time for just four.
Hameed notched his sixth half-century of the season by tea, with Clarke following suit after resumption.
A quick single took Hameed to three figures just before stumps off his 151st ball.
Report supplied by ECB Reporters' Network.