Essex remain at the bottom of Division Two after this match fizzled out into a draw. It is an indication of quite how docile the Wantage Road pitch is that Essex made 506 for nine, their highest second-innings score for 13 years.
For there to be any chance of a positive result, Northamptonshire needed to have a fruitful morning with the new ball and they did break the 258-run partnership between Tom Westley and Jesse Ryder after half an hour’s play. Rory Kleinveldt, who picked up five Essex wickets in the second innings, prised out Westley for 179 with a steep rising delivery that was edged behind. Ryder had brought up his 21st first-class century early on and it was an exceptionally restrained one by his standards. It came from 202 deliveries with nine fours and one six. He was visibly annoyed with himself when he punched a back-foot drive to Stephen Peters at point off Olly Stone for 124.
Had the home side held their catches, it could have been an entirely different story. Both Ryan ten Doeschate and James Foster – the last of the recognised Essex batsmen – were dropped in the slips with the lead under 250. They would prove to be costly drops as Ten Doeschate went on to make a half century in an 82-run partnership with the Essex captain.
Northamptonshire’s bowlers continued to toil away and Essex’s lower order of Graham Napier, Adeel Malik and David Masters added just three between them but by then the lead was over 300. The declaration came, eventually, at 3.20pm after Ten Doeschate had launched Rob Keogh into the windows of the indoor school, leaving Northamptonshire 42 overs to try and get the highly improbable score of 339. They would require more than eight an over for victory and need to do it without Peters, who had gone off to hospital for an x-ray of the thumb he injured in the process of dropping Ten Doeschate.
Alex Wakely’s side did not come out guns blazing – getting steadily to 34 before losing two wickets in five balls to give Essex an unexpected sniff of victory. Ravi Bopara bowled a testing spell which got the wicket of Rob Newton by jagging one off the seam into his pads for 33. Foster kept attacking, with seven men in catching positions, and with the odd chance coming he decided to keep going into the final hour, but after some solid defence by Richard Levi and Josh Cobb the two sides shook hands with nine overs left.
Despite Northamptonshire’s dominance in the first two days, this match was really decided by a flat pitch which got flatter as it progressed. All four championship matches played at Wantage Road this season have ended in last-day draws. Northamptonshire take 13 points from this match which pushes them up from seventh to fifth in the Division Two table.
