the eagles in flight: cb40 2011

another competition and another disappointment. after an indifferent twenty20 campaign, the essex eagles were expected to kick on in the cb40 but fans were left frustrated as essex missed out on a semi final place. after being drawn in a tricky group, very few could have antipiciated such a start.

nottinghamshire outlaws were the first visitors to the county ground and as the reigning division one champions, probably expected to win against an essex who had experienced a poor start to the season. a century from the much admired alex hales put them on their way. a delightful 116 from hales, backed up by an impressive 69 from samit patel set essex the target of 288. not unbeatable but said to be beyond essex's reach.
however, the eagles refused to lay down and with england's ashes hero, alastair cook, opening the batting - almost anything was possible. cook, at this point did not play one day cricket for england, fell four short of a cenutry, with his england colleague bopara chipping in with a tidy half century. the county ground was buzzing and could sense an unlikely essex victory here. they were rewarded for their support when james foster and matthew walker put on a match-winning partnership. captain foster scoring 66 from only 44. essex had won by seven wickets and registered their first points in group c. now to another tricky tie, lancashire lightning were in town.

essex dismissed lancashire for 190 - a very beatable score, surely one that even essex could reach without any scares. not reaching 200 in 40 over cricket will always put you in a vulnerable position and with essex still buzzing from the previous day's victory, it was likely lancs would be making the long trip back up north with no points to show for their troubles. both essex openers - pettini and cook were out cheaply to mahmood and with the score at 32-2, the optimism was slowly draining out of the essex fans. in the end, they really had no need to worry as ravi bopara shone with an unbeaten 75, his score just beaten by captain foster who again was essex's top scorer with 77. again, the eagles had won by seven wickets and they could breathe easily, knowing they had thoroughly beaten two division one sides, both tipped for great things in division one and in the shorter forms of the game. also remember, this was an essex team without ryan ten doeschate and new addition to the team, owais shah, who were both still in the sub continent playing in the indian premier league.

the sky cameras were in cardiff as essex played their first away game of the cb40 campaign against glamorgan, hoping to see a spectacular innings from the newly appointed england one day captain alastair cook. sadly for sky and essex fans, we never got to see cook work his magic as only one half of the match was completed due to rain. essex won the toss and put glamorgan into bat. a rather dull innings from glamorgan was livened up thanks to a sensational hattrick from graham napier, a man who has grabbed the headlines before on a few occasions. glamorgan ended their forty overs on 222-7 but essex were not given a chance to reply, as traditional welsh weather set in for the night.

two days later the essex eagles travelled to bury st edmunds to play the unicorns, who were yet to ever record a victory in the cb40. as expected, essex eased to victory winning with thirty five deliveries to spare. a comfortable win was always on the horizon after tim phillips claimed career best figures of 5-28, as the home side were all out for 137. cook and napier were'nt around for long but bopara and pettini reached the modest target easily, earning essex their third victory of the campaign so far.

there was a short break in forty over action as essex's attention turned to two championship games against surrey and middlesex. after two draws, it was back to the cb40 and another chance to face the unicorns. unicorns posted a slightly more competitive score of 183, chris wright the pick of the bowlers taking 4-20. fine batting and a match winning partnership of 149 from mark pettini (88*) and matt walker (71*), saw essex extend their unbeaten run in the competition - finally winning by eight wickets.

the month of june and half of july was dedicated to a hectic twenty20 schedule, in which essex failed to fufil their potential. onwards and upwards. after a victory in the championship at grace road, essex visited trent bridge hoping to replicate the same result as earlier on in the season against the same opposition. a rain affected game in nottingham was delayed and stopped many times due to the adverse weather conditions. the outlaws managed to score 127-7 from their 23 overs. essex were set a manageable 74 from 10 overs to win but yet more rain set in and the umpire abandoned the game before the essex batsmen could face a ball.

the middle of july and we were already fed up of this 'british summer'. many games falling victim to the weather and essex's next game against glamorgan was no exception. rain had been forecasted to fall in chelmsford for almost the duration of the game but we did get more cricket than expected. ravi bopara, essex's stand in captain won the toss and decided to bowl, knowing the rain was fastly approaching. the stand out from glamorgan's innings was a century from gareth rees, 101 from 105 balls. glamorgan innings was reduced to 38 overs and essex target was 133 runs in 15 overs. in typical essex fashion, they lost the early wickets of wheater and napier. an exciting cameo from owais shah wasn't enough to see essex to victory as more rain fell and yet another game was abandoned.

essex's next game at cheltenham had no such issues with the rain, although this time the eagles may have wished to be saved by the weather. all out for 195 simply wasn't good enough - relying on the bowlers to provide the runs to ensure it wasn't a total humiliation. tim phillips passed his previous highest first class score of 41 on his way to an unbeaten 58. chris wright was the only other player to secure a respectful score - 42 from 43 balls. gloucestershire won with five overs to spare, helpful contributions from many of their batsmen - cockbain's unbeaten 48 was the top score.

essex were argubably facing their toughest opponents in the game down at southend, somerset: last year's runners up with a formidable batting line up. essex won the toss and elected to bat but didn't make the most of their chances - only scoring 140. a score which would be hard to defend when facing a so called 'lesser team' but somerset were not a team to under perform against. somerset breezed past essex's total in less than thirty overs.

essex's campaign was faltering and they needed a victory against lancashire at old trafford if they were to challenge somerset and nottinghamshire for a semi final place. lancashire's innings didn't get off to the best of starts after the ever-impressive tim phillips bowled opener smith for one and soon after, bopara trapping croft lbw. lancashire lightning knew they had to score big runs, quickly and karl brown provided them, scoring an unbeaten century to help set essex a target of 258. quite a task for an essex team who had seemed so out of form recently in one day cricket.
brown wasn't the only centurion at old trafford as mark pettini steered essex to victory with a superb 104 before being stumped by wicketkeeper cross off the bowling of keedy. owais shah again peforming well, his seventy five help set up a tense finish. essex won with two balls to spare, ryan ten doeschate scoring the winning run!

the last home game for the eagles in the cb40 was at colchester's castle park where they faced the gloucestershire gladiators. the essex innings was off to an appalling start as mark pettini was dismissed lbw first ball by fuller. fast bowler fuller caused the essex batsmen huge problems in his first few overs before adam wheater was back to his free scoring self, before falling to fuller on 40. the real star of the show at castle park was owais shah, his entertaining 104 thrilled spectators scoring nine fours and four sixes. captain foster adding late, quick runs before being bowled on 66 by payne. essex had set gloucs 300 to win, a difficult target but the gladiators did have ireland's kevin o'brien in their line up and most of the crowd had seen his big hitting at the world cup. the previously mentioned o'brien opened the batting, scoring just 13 before he was bowled by mr consistent himself, david masters. not one batsmen reached a half century for gloucestershire, as the wickets fell, the visitors all out for 181. essex had won their must-win game by 118 runs but knew the real test was next monday, somerset down at taunton.

monday 29th august: somerset had virtually guaranteed their place in the semi finals but this game was still very important for them as a desperately needed home draw was up for grabs. essex had chosen to rest a couple of players after a long summer and somerset were missing kieswetter and buttler as they had been called up to england for the one-off twenty20 game against india. somerset's batting line up was further weakened after a serious looking ankle injury to their captain and star man, marcus trescothick. essex youngsters topley, mills and craddock all bowled well, the latter with impressive figures of 2-38 from his eight overs. luckily for somerset, they managed to recover and set essex 252 to win, against a strong somerset bowling attack.
essex fell forty runs short of their target, jaik mickleburgh top-scoring with 56 and graham napier making 41. young fast bowler reece topley, managed to score his highest score of the season, a solid 19. sadly, all their efforts were in vain as essex missed out on a semi final spot.
from an essex perspective, this season is almost dead and planning for next season will start as soon as possible. with the young talent present at the club and a few quality additions, there's no reason why essex cannot aim for promotion next season, as well as improvement in the shorter forms of the game.