a fantastic start by essex to their 2011 campaign, which saw them beat division one champions notts by seven wickets. thanks to both sides, it was a wonderfully entertaining game that delighted the crowd at the county ground. england hopeful alex hales top scored for notts with 116 from 101 balls, which helped set a competitive target of 288 for essex, thanks to a valuable contribution from samit patel also.
alastair cook was four away from his century when bowled out by luke fletcher but a lot of the damage had already been done as his partnership with england team-mate ravi bopara was littered with boundaries, carrying on from cook's opening wicket partnership with pettini. after bopara was dismissed for fifty, there was a slight worry that further wickets could fall quickly but a fantastic innings from walker and captain, foster saw essex safely home, with an over to spare. towards the end of the game, the essex innings turned into a t20 game - boundaries galore, scoring 103 runs in 10 overs.
after a relatively disappointing start to the season (excluding the recent win over glamorgan at chelmsford) in the county championship, this was the perfect way to inject excitement and optimism back into the essex fans.
