Matthew Potts made a claim for a place in England’s tour party for the Ashes this winter with a three-wicket haul for Durham at Chelmsford including the key scalps of Essex centurions Dean Elgar and Matt Critchley.
The 26-year-old pace bowler had been pulled out of next week’s One-Day Internationals in Ireland by the England management for an up-to-date assessment of his red-ball form with an outing or two in the County Championship.
However, it took him 22 overs of unrelenting toil, and occasional bad luck when his pace beat the bat without reward, before he finally struck to end the 191-run fourth-wicket partnership. Potts finished a day shorn of 57 overs by rain interruptions with figures of 3-95 from 30 overs.
The obdurate Elgar was at the crease for 98 overs in clocking up 150, his first century of the season, while Critchley’s more flamboyant 129 took just 168 balls. In perfect symmetry, though in great contrast, both batsmen hit 17 fours and one six.
Their stand encompassed 50 overs and underpinned Essex’s 457-8, which gave them a first-innings lead of 124 in the battle between two relegation-threatened teams. But a lull after the departure of both men within 10 balls from Potts meant Essex missed out on a fourth batting point which had looked a certainty at one point.
It had taken Critchley just six balls to move from his overnight 97 into three-figures for the third time his summer. The milestone, from 137 balls, was achieved with a wristy shot to the third-man boundary off Ben Raine. That was followed two balls later with his 14th four, a cover-drive that was both imperious and effortless.
Essex moved into the lead 15 minutes into the day’s play when Critchley punished Raine with his fourth boundary in the seamer’s opening two overs, again angling the ball through the vacant third man.
Elgar was content to watch from the other end as Critchley did the bulk of the early scoring but still crept to 150 from 281 balls. Two balls later, though, he got a thick edge to one in Potts’s fourth over of the day and was caught behind. In his next over, Potts had Critchley playing down the wrong line to one that would have hit middle and off.
From a position where the requisite 400 in 110 overs was on the cards, Essex went into the doldrums as the cut-off point loomed. Michael Pepper took 14 balls to get off the mark but fell two balls later when he failed to read an inswinger from Sam Conners and was also lbw. In the end Essex were 29 runs short of the target.
Noah Thain hung around for 60 balls in a 52-run stand with Simon Harmer before he became Potts’s third victim, caught brilliantly at full-stretch by Ben McKinney at slip. However, the arrival of Doug Bracewell belatedly increased the tempo as he twice creamed Potts through the covers for fours and then launched Callum Parkinson for a long, straight six.
Harmer’s demise after a 70-ball 44, playing on to Raine, brought in the injured Shane Snater with runner Charlie Allison. However, the rain returned as they approached the wicket, though they were soon back for another 10-minute burst of action ahead of a serious bout of heavy rain in mid-afternoon sent the players scurrying for shelter for the final time.
Report supplied by ECB Reporters’ Network, supported by Rothesay
