Northants & Essex settle for draw

COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP, Division Two, Wantage Road, day four:
Northants 304 & 251-1 dec drew with Essex 256-2 dec & 60-3
Points: Essex 9, Northants 7

Match scorecard

Northants and Essex settled for a draw after part-time bowling enabled Stephen Peters to smash a 55-minute century.

The Northants opener made an unbeaten 130 off 76 balls, including 22 fours, as they piled up 251-1 declared.

Essex skipper Mark Pettini sent down 12 overs at a cost of 129 runs, and James Foster conceded 122 but managed to pick up the wicket of Niall O'Brien (58).

Set 300 to win, Essex struggled to 60-3 before rain set in during the afternoon and the umpires had to call a halt.

Bad weather earlier in the match forced the two skippers to be proactive in an attempt to produce a positive result, with Pettini declaring Essex's first innings on their overnight score of 256-2.

606: DEBATE

I see James Foster, fed up with being overlooked for the national gloves, has taken to bowling in a bid to get selected

GeniusSteals

Peters and O'Brien then helped themselves to some easy runs in an opening stand of 159 before the latter became Foster's maiden first-class victim, hitting a ball from the keeper straight to Pettini at mid-on.

Rob White struck three successive sixes off Pettini, who had never previously bowled in first-class cricket, but the visitors' captain was unlucky not to take his revenge when Ravi Bopara put down a chance in the slips.

White added three further sixes in his unbeaten 61 off 26 deliveries before Northants captain Nicky Boje called his batsmen in.

Essex had 70 overs left to try and reach their target, but made a bad start as Jason Gallian fell leg-before to David Lucas for a duck.

The visitors, who were 31-1 at lunch, lost Bopara soon after the re-start, lbw to Boje's left-arm spin for 24 after surviving a bat-pad chance off the previous ball.

John Maunders (26) was next to go, edging a catch off South African Lance Klusener, whose contract is not being renewed by Northants next season, but that was the last meaningful action before the weather intervened.