Essex win secures inaugural Mike Denness Challenge Shield
Thursday 11th September 2014
Essex completed the formality of scoring the 22 runs needed at the start of day 3 to beat Kent at Chelmsford to claim the inaugural Mike Denness Challenge Shield, in honour of the former Kent and Essex cricketer.
With a haul of 22 points from the match, Essex improved their promotion prospects as Kent's slim hopes of Division One cricket in 2015 faded.
Matt Hunn claimed his sixth first-class wicket with his first ball of the day as left-hander Nick Browne misjudged the line and was trapped leg before.
The hosts hit the winning runs from 17 balls to secure the first annual Mike Denness Challenge Shield 5-1 after two Natwest T20 Blast wins and a LV= Championship draw at Canterbury between the sides, worth a point each.
Kent were bowled out for 198 and 151 in the match, slipping to 14 for four and 37 for five on the first morning, while Essex's first innings produced 328 with James Foster's 108 backed up by Jesse Ryder (58) and Graham Napier (62). The latter also took seven wickets in the match.
Essex head coach Paul Grayson said: "The pitch offered a little bit more than everyone thought it would on the first day but even so, it was a great bowling display and the century from James Foster and the innings from Graham Napier set up the game for us. But it was a really outstanding performance from everyone."
Kent captain Rob Key reflected: "It was in interesting pitch, it started wet in the middle and dry at the ends so it was going to seam and also take spin. It was always going to be a big first session for us but unfortunately we just didn't get through it.
"It would have been interesting if we had been able to set them 200 in the last innings but they got too far in front. The ball started to spin a fair amount for Monty Panesar yesterday and we had two spinners so it could have been a very interesting game of cricket."