Latest news with #MattCritchley
The Independent
12-05-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
Essex tailenders frustrate Yorkshire to salvage Championship draw at Chelmsford
Essex completed a remarkable rearguard action to salvage a draw in their Rothesay County Championship match with Yorkshire, closing with an unbroken last-wicket stand that lasted 13.4 overs. Jonny Bairstow's side started the day with an insurmountable lead and six wickets to take but fell one short at Chelmsford, frustrated by some doggedly determined batting. Matt Critchley (75 off 246 balls) and Michael Pepper (68 off 229) occupied the crease for a combined total of almost 10 hours to lead the resistance before both fell to George Hill. Yorkshire kept pushing for a much-needed Division One win, leaving the hosts nine down with just under 40 minutes remaining, but Simon Harmer chewed through 115 deliveries and number 11 Jamie Porter kept him company until the close. At Hove, out-of-favour England seamer Ollie Robinson put the finishing touches to Sussex's victory over Worcestershire, with Jake Libby's one-man show ultimately in vain. Both sides entered the final day of the match with realistic hopes of winning – the Pears needing 244 runs and the hosts chasing seven wickets. Libby was outstanding, turning his overnight 64 into 167, but the game slipped through Worcestershire's fingers when he was eighth man out to Fynn Hudson-Prentice with 75 still required. Robinson, who played his last Test 16 months ago but has expressed his desire to earn another chance, then picked off Fateh Singh and Ben Gibbon to seal a 47-run win. The result lifted Sussex to third in the table, while Worcestershire remain winless in bottom spot. Another England discard, Ben Foakes, ensured defending champions Surrey left Edgbaston with a share of the spoils. In a run-fest against Warwickshire, the wicketkeeper made 174 not out to dash the home side's hopes of forcing a result. His diligent batting with the tail, something the national selectors felt he did not always do well enough, carried the Brown Caps to 504 all out, 161 behind but entirely safe. The pretence of a follow-on was initiated for five overs before the sides shook hands.
BBC News
12-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Essex hold out for draw against Yorkshire
Rothesay County Championship Division One, Ambassador Cruise Line Ground, Chelmsford (day four)Yorkshire 216 & 426-6 dec: Lyth 185, Bairstow 79, Wharton 61; Thain 3-96Essex 123 & 273-9: Critchley 75, Pepper 68; White 4-32, Hill 3-31 Essex (11 pts) drew with Yorkshire (11 pts) Match scorecard Matt Critchley and Michael Pepper knuckled down for a monumental fifth-wicket stand of 154 in 77 overs to help steer Essex to the unlikeliest of County Championship draws against Yorkshire at pair came together in the depths of despair at 45-4 on the third evening and batted for four-and-a-half hours together, spanning 458 balls, and looked to have made it through two complete sessions on the final day. Pepper, though, fell to the last ball before tea after a 229-ball 68 that included five fours and two followed after the interval for 75 from 246 balls as Yorkshire scented their second win of the season with three wickets in 21 balls. However, last-wicket pair Simon Harmer and Jamie Porter saw out the final 38 minutes and 82 balls to prevent a second successive Hill returned career-best match figures of 9-82, supported by Jack White's season's best 4-43, but to no avail as Yorkshire toiled in vain for one more target of 520, with 456 still nominally required at the start of day four, was always going to be beyond Essex's compass and it became more a case of settling in to save plans for survival, however, were set out from the start as Pepper and Critchley blocked and blocked with little alarm. It was not until the 20th ball of the day that they moved off their overnight 64-4 when Critchley angled a Ben Coad delivery wide of the slips for a boundary. It was only the introduction of Hill after 35 minutes that saw the usually flamboyant Pepper opened his morning's account, turning the ball down to fine leg for a first sign of serious aggression came when Critchley hooked Matty Revis so firmly that the square-leg umpire had to take evasive action as it sped to the boundary. Revis then attempted a short-ball barrage at Pepper which and it nearly came off when the Essex batsman gloved one up and over Jonny Bairstow's head behind the broke out of his self-imposed shackles by sweeping Dom Bess for one six and adding a second over long leg. In between, he survived a difficult chance off an uppish drive past Pepper scampered the single soon after lunch that took him to a 155-ball 50 followed quickly by the century stand that ate up 51 overs. Critchley's 50 was more circumspect, reached with another four guided down to third man from his 190th ball hopes seemed to hinge on the second new-ball, but they failed to make it count immediately and Bess was recalled to the attack after nine fruitless overs. However, to the final ball of the 13th over with it, on the cusp of tea, Pepper was caught leaning into a Hill delivery and departed Thain lasted 15 balls before he was bowled through the gate by Bess and Critchley's marathon innings ended when he got the faintest of tickles to Hill and was caught Snater held out for 32 balls without scoring before he fell lbw to White and Kasun Rajitha's 21 came off 40 balls before he played down the wrong line and was bowled by Dan Moriarty. But then Porter came in to join Harmer and thwart Yorkshire despite being ringed by close Reporters' Network supported by Rothesay
BBC News
12-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
County Championship, Hove game in balance, Essex hold up Yorkshire - radio & text
Post Essex 191-4 (target 520) v Yorks There are a minimum of 40 overs remaining at Chelmsford, which should be plenty of time for Yorkshire to pick up six wickets. But they haven't taken one since the 17th over of this Essex innings last night - more than 66 overs ago - and Ben Coad and Jack White really need to make something happen quickly with this second new ball. Matt Critchley has just edged ahead of partner Michael Pepper again, with 65 runs to the latter's 64.
BBC News
09-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Essex & Yorkshire both struggle as wickets tumble
Rothesay County Championship Division One, Ambassador Cruise Line Ground, Chelmsford (day one)Yorkshire 216: Wharton 63*, Lyth 58; Critchley 4-49Essex 27-3: Westley 10*; Hill 2-14Essex (3 pts) trail Yorkshire (1 pt) by 189 runsMatch scorecard James Wharton stood resolute at one end while wickets fell all around him as Yorkshire pressed the self-destruct button after a promising start against Essex on a difficult Chelmsford 24-year-old right-hander came in when the first wicket fell at 71 and was still there 55 overs later on 63 not out from 145 balls when Matt Critchley wrapped up Yorkshire's innings on 216 with his fourth heart had been ripped out of Yorkshire's innings when four wickets fell in six overs, three of them in nine balls, as a promising 108-1 became 128-5 and continued in the same vein at the same time as Wharton painstakingly racked up his second County Championship half-century of the season. Only opener Adam Lyth, with 58 from 148 balls, showed any similar by a bumper first-day crowd of 2,612, bolstered by a number of school parties, Essex lost both openers and the nightwatchman in the 16 overs remaining in the evening session while reducing the arrears by 27 runs. Charlie Allsion nicked Ben Coad behind, Dean Elgar fished at one from George Hill to be caught at second slip and Jamie Porter was beaten for pace by the same had taken one look at the wicket, which had plenty of grass left on it, and decided to bat. It played dead for a session and a half and then suddenly became more responsive for bowlers who had toiled also had gone into the game without either of their overseas players, the seamers Ben Sears and Jordan Buckingham, plumping instead for an extra batsman in Jonny Tattersall for his first outing of the season. It was a plan that backfired before the mid and late afternoon clatter of wickets, the openers had moved along serenely for the initial 23 overs during which Lyth, on 36, had been dropped at wide mid-off by a running Tom Westley. Both Lyth and Finlay Bean had already come down the wicket and lofted Simon Harmer in similar directions for boundaries. The seamers had generally been despatched through the chance did not prove costly and, three overs later, Bean looked to drive Shane Snater but played down the wrong line and was scoring without trouble, Yorkshire went into their shell and Lyth and Wharton added just nine runs in the eight overs that preceded lunch. Lyth had been particularly watchful, but stirred after lunch and reached his half-century from 120 balls when he lent back and cut Harmer for his ninth added one more boundary, a leg glance off Kasun Rajitha, before the Sri Lankan paceman trapped him lbw, playing an indeterminate in Tattersall did not pay the dividend required as he departed for four to the second ball of a Critchley spell, wafting one that turned into leg slip's Bairstow and Hill departed to successive balls from Porter, the captain lbw on the back foot, and Hill getting an inside edge that carried to the and Matty Revis knuckled down to steady things for a while before two self-inflicted wounds heralded another slew of wickets. Revis carelessly top-edged Critchley to point where Harmer was steady under the steepling ball. And Dom Bess followed almost immediately, leaving alone a straight delivery from Rajitha and being surprised when it rapped him squarely on the took more than three hours over his fifty, late-cutting Rajitha for four to reach the milestone from 138 balls. But he lost three more partners in quick succession when Coad pulled Critchley to short midwicket and Dan Moriarty's cameo embracing six fours in 24 ended when he was lbw playing around one from Noah Thain. Critchley finished with figures of 4-49 when he had Jack White caught at chest height by Reporters' Network supported by Rothesay
BBC News
26-03-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Essex cricketers take on Simon Lightwood MP in unlikely bus race
Professional cricketers laid down their bats to race a junior minister in what was an unlikely match-up behind the wheel of a County Cricket Club's Matt Critchley and Paul Walter got in the driving seat along with Simon Lightwood MP at North Weald event aimed to demonstrate the skills required to be a bus driver and encourage others to take up bus driving said the quirky contest "felt like something out of Top Gear". The all-rounder was declared the winner of the challenge on Tuesday, having racked up the best score on the course."To be honest, once I saw Matt could do it I thought 'anyone can do it'," he said."Although I think I struggled on the theory; I didn't know what an air compression brake was, and still don't, but it's quite fun when you press it." 'Bit nervous' The Department for Transport (DfT) publicity stunt followed £1bn funding being announced to deliver London-style buses across and Walter were invited by the DfT and First Bus to take on the time-trialled obstacle course, designed to mimic the real bus driving Bus also recently released an Essex County Cricket Club-themed bus as part of the partnership between the two laughed off knocking over a handful of cones on the course, claiming: "I was too busy practising my small talk."But it's not too bad, it's like driving a bus - once you do it once, you don't forget."He continued: "I was a little bit nervous, to be honest."I didn't really have it in my diary that I'd be driving a bus at any point in my life." The DfT said under its bus funding plan, money would be allocated based on levels of deprivation and say Southend-on-Sea will receive "unprecedented" the Labour government's Bus Services Bill, local authorities could "take back control" of services through said the event in Essex helped him better understand the "commitment and skill" needed to drive a added: "It was really hard. I've got such respect for our trainee drivers, it was a really gruelling course." Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
