Essex’s eyes now turn to Taunton, where Lancashire must be in Taunton Beat Somerset to move the Group 1 title fight into the penultimate week
Essex12 March 9 369 points (Chopra 98, Lawrence 78, Foster 68, Buck 3-71) beat Warwickshire 201 (Sibley 76, Porter 4-62, Harmer 4-47) and 112 (Harmer 4-25, Porter 3-37, Cook 3-42) by one inning and 56 runs
Essex by completing a Edgbaston beat relegated Warwickshire in 56 innings.
trailed by 168 in the first innings, the home side were beaten by Essex on 112 , they beat them by one innings and 164 runs at Chelmsford in June.
Second-placed Lancashire in Taunton v Somerset Behind Essex County, the champions are almost Essex’s after they completely beat Warwickshire. The post-match atmospheres in Edgbaston’s two dressing rooms were very different – Essex will start the 2018 season as defending champions and Warwickshire will enter the second division after nine years in the top flight Time has come to a scarred end.
Warwickshire recovers at 9am on third day with no losses, their supporters Any hope of seeing their team rediscover some of the resilience was gone within minutes. Within ten rounds, the Bears fell to 25 on fours. Slipping at first, Sam Hain, lbw, was in the space of nine balls. Ex-England duo Jonathan Trotter and Ian Bell were uprooted by Sam Cook, who lured the former to continue the game, the latter was driven behind with brilliant inside passes.
Chris Woakes takes spinner Simon Harmer’s No. 1 Ten balls shifted to lap slips, and rain just before and during lunchtime just delayed the parade.
55-5 at lunch, Warwickshire lost another wicket before gaining Another run as Alex Mellor slipped off Harmer to provide the spinner’s 20th title wicket of the season against Warwickshire. Porter then handed a pair of Keith Bucks as the left-hander closed in on wicketkeeper James Foster.
Edba Stony Academy product Matt Lamb showed his ability with some solid resistance for the second time in the game, but on the 35th (66 balls, four fours) Hammer came down To Dan Lawrence on the middle wicket boundary.
Lawrence caught again well and ran from the ravine to the Jeetan Patel was removed from Cook, leaving the final pair of Henry Brookes and Ryan Sidebottom with a 63 for Essex to hit again. They managed seven of them before Brooks let Hammer slip.
