Porter, Harmer raid Nottinghamshire before Hameed offers resistance

Nottinghamshire 93 (Porter 5-35, Harmer 4-16) and 180 for 2 f/o (Hameed 100*, ) trail Essex 457 by 184 runs

Jamie Porter and Simon Harmer shared nine first-innings wickets as Essex skittled Nottinghamshire for 93 on a morning of utter carnage at Chelmsford.

Seam bowler Porter took his third five-wicket haul of the season, and second in consecutive Vitality County Championship matches, to finish with 5 for 35, season’s best figures that included three wickets in five balls.

Simon Harmer also claimed his best bowling figures of the summer with 4 for 16 from 12.5 overs and then took the first two wickets of Nottinghamshire’s second innings. Allied with a season’s best 51 in Essex’s 457, it was a welcome return to form for the off-spinning all-rounder who has been dogged by persistent injury.

Nottinghamshire’s inability to cope with Porter’s pace and Harmer’s guile on a wicket that had become less benign overnight, left them 364 runs adrift on first innings. When they followed on, captain Haseeb Hameed led the fightback with a patiently crafted unbeaten 100 from 151 balls and put on an unbroken 131 with Joe Clarke (62 not out) for the third wicket. At the close, Nottinghamshire were 180 for 2, still 184 runs from making Essex bat again.

It was the perfect repost from Essex on the day the ECB confirmed their 12-point deduction after opening batsman Feroze Khushi was found to have used an illegally-sized bat in the reverse fixture at Trent Bridge in April. It does, however, end their dwindling hopes of challenging for the title.

Nottinghamshire’s first innings fell apart spectacularly on a sunny, though chilly morning as 48 for 1 became 93 all out, with nine wickets clattering in 87 minutes

There was no sign of what was to come in the first half-hour as Ben Slater and Freddie McCann added 31 to their overnight score. But then Harmer came on and struck first ball when McCann moved forward half-cock and was the first of five LBWs in the morning. Harmer had two of the next three wickets to fall as Ben Slater was snaffled at slip and Jack Haynes was the second lbw victim.

In between Porter replaced the unlucky Sam Cook, who had discomforted McCann on several occasions and might have had something to show for a venomous opening spell had Matt Critchley not dropped Joe Clarke at gulley. It did not prove too expensive as Porter had Clarke pinned lbw in his first over.

Nottinghamshire’s South African wicketkeeper-batsman Kyle Verreynne came out all guns blazing, reverse-sweeping Harmer for four and driving Porter over the long-off boundary. However, his nine-ball cameo ended on 12 when he drove Porter uppishly into the covers.

Lyndon James departed to a stunning full-length dive low to his left by Michael Pepper to spark Porter’s three-quick-wicket burst. Luke Fletcher, first ball, and Liam Patterson-White fell lbw before Harmer wrapped things up by having Rob Lord caught at bat-pad.

Following on, Hameed and Slater looked comfortable for a dozen overs after lunch before Slater misjudged a delivery from Harmer that beat the outside edge and bowled him. The teenaged McCann was bamboozled for a second time by Harmer, the sixth player to go lbw during the day.

Hameed was particularly strong off the back-foot, punching the ball through extra cover for a succession of boundaries, and reached his sixth fifty-plus score of the season from 70 balls. That Nottinghamshire made a better fist of it in the second innings was illustrated by the fact they had overhauled their first-innings total by tea for the loss of just two wickets.

Hameed found a willing partner in Clarke and the pair steadied things by putting the first fifty of their stand in 14 overs, taking another 15 for the second fifty. As confidence grew, Clarke came down the wicket and smashed Harmer over midwicket for six on the way to reaching his half-century from 105 balls.

A quick single took Hameed to three-figures just before stumps off his 151st ball.