Essex bag a victory after following on against Hampshire

The County Championship 2017 winners Essex ended the season with a brilliant win over the Hampshire side as they erased off the follow-on trail to bag a big win at opposition’s home venue. Essex picked their 9th win of the season with a 102-run victory in the 4-day game dominated by the pace bowlers at the Rose Bowl, Southampton.

Visiting side Essex decided to bowl first without the toss. Hampshire were bowled out for 254 in their first innings with contributions from their captain George Bailey, who scored 89 and James Vince added 60. A six-wicket haul from Kyle Abbott rattled Essex’s batting as they were all out for just 76 runs in their first innings.

Hampshire decided to enforce the follow-on with a 178-run first inning lead in hand by the first session of day two. A far better performance in the 2nd innings helped Essex overcome the deficit on the 2nd day. Daniel Lawrence’s 107 helped Essex post 362 and set a target of 185 for the home side. 20-year-old pacer Samuel Cook picked up 5/18 in his 11.4 overs to wrap up the Hampshire’s innings for a meagre 76.

The Stats

This was the 37th instance in County Championship and the 102nd in first-class cricket where a team won after playing the following-on innings. Kent‘s win over Essex in 2009 season was the previous instance of a team winning after being enforced to follow-on in County while Barbados won against Guyana in the 2014/15 West Indies’ Regional 4-day tournament was the last instance in FC cricket.

Overall, this was the 4th win for Essex after coming out of follow-on. They were victorious after being forced to follow-on against Warwickshire in 1984, against Hampshire in 1992 and against Nottinghamshire in 1999 previously. Only Kent (4) and Middlesex (4) have won as many as four county championship games after playing following-on innings.

In first-class cricket, only eight other teams have won four and more games after being forced to following-on. Kent won in six such games while Cambridge University, Gloucestershire and Yorkshire won five times each. Lancashire, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), Middlesex and Sussex are the other four teams with four wins in FC cricket after following-on.