Rothesay County Championship Division One, Ambassador Cruise Line Ground, Chelmsford (day four)
Essex 582-6 dec: Critchley 145*, Cox 117, Pepper 109; Lawrence 3-169
Surrey 365: Foakes 92* & 219-6: Sibley 66, Foakes 50
Essex (14 pts) drew with Surrey (11 pts)
Dom Sibley remained immovable for 77 overs to underpin Surrey's successful fight to salvage a draw in their opening match in the defence of the County Championship title.
Surrey had started the final day with a target of 217 to avoid an innings defeat and Sibley appeared determined to make sure the reigning champions batted throughout to save both the game and their faces after a chastening four days at Chelmsford.
The former England opener put on 101 in 41 overs in a decisive fourth-wicket stand with Ben Foakes before he departed for 66 after a four-and-a-half hour, 221-ball vigil.
Foakes reprised his first-innings stubbornness with a second half-century of the match before Ryan Patel and Jordan Clark saw them sneak over the line at 219-6 and handshakes on the draw.
Two wickets in seven balls early on day four gave Essex a brief scent of a victory that had looked highly probable when they asked Surrey to follow-on, but apart from three late wickets the match meandered towards the inevitable draw. They used eight bowlers in the innings in an effort to change the narrative, but to no avail.
Surrey might have lost Sibley to the first ball of the day but his edge to Jamie Porter fell short of slip. Sibley was in stereotypical obdurate mode and took 26 balls to get off the mark, an angled shot down to third man off Porter.
The openers set the tone for the day in the first 49 minutes, trundling along at a rate of around two an over. By then Simon Harmer had arrived in the attack. He required just 13 balls of niggling and probing before Rory Burns went back to a fuller ball and was trapped lbw on his stumps.
Then in the next over, Ollie Pope slashed wildly at a widish delivery from Shane Snater and, for once on a slow pitch, the ball carried through to the wicketkeeper. The England man's cameo lasted four balls for a solitary run.
The strike-rate increased significantly for a spell when Paul Walter was introduced. Jamie Smith went after him, taking 23 runs off eight balls faced, including a pulled six and four fours. Not surprisingly the left-arm seamer was immediately retired with figures of 2-0-25-0.
However, Smith's stay proved brief as he was involved in a run-out of ridiculous proportions with Sibley. Smith decided there was a second run, Sibley did not, both men finding themselves at the same end.
Despite an initial miss-take by Michael Pepper from Snater's throw to the wicketkeeper, the ball was eventually transferred to the non-striker's end where Critchley was able to effect the dismissal.
With spin at both ends, Essex wheeled through the overs at a rate of knots – indeed the official over-rate was showing at plus 13 – with Sibley and Foakes content to thrust their legs down the wicket to negate any turn.
So it was something of a jolt to the system when Sibley punished a wayward delivery from Critchley through midwicket for only his fourth four and then immediately drove straight for his fifth. He also executed a well-timed cover drive off Harmer for another boundary.
Despite those occasional flurries it still took Sibley 181 balls to reach his fifty, achieved midway through the afternoon session having started his innings the previous evening. To emphasise the ...
