Cook amongst the runs as Essex establish an advantage

Essex v Warwickshire – LV Insurance County Championship – Cloudfm, Chelmsford – Day Three – Summary

Warwickshire 166 and 0/0 (1.0 overs)

Essex 217 (82.3 overs)

Warwickshire won the toss and have elected to bat

Warwickshire trail Essex by 51 runs with ten wickets standing

Essex forged a useful lead with Alastair Cook, Ryan ten Doeschate and Simon Harmer each contributing useful innings’ on day three against Warwickshire at Chelmsford.

Rain and bad light again caused delay and frustration. Nevertheless, on a difficult pitch, Cook scored 57 off 105 balls, while ten Doeschate’s 56 came during a 105-minute stint in the middle.

Harmer, so often the man Essex turn to with the ball, provided an unbeaten 40 as the home side established a 51-run advantage – Liam Norwell and skipper, Will Rhodes each taking three wickets apiece for the visitors.

Warwickshire navigated the six deliveries they had to face before the close. Earlier in the contest, their first innings had contrived 166, with Tim Bresnan top-scoring with fifty – Peter Siddle doing the majority of the damage, taking 6/38. Play resumes on Sunday at 11am.

Essex: Nick Browne, Alastair Cook, Tom Westley (Capt), Dan Lawrence, Paul Walter, Ryan ten Doeschate, Adam Wheater (WK), Simon Harmer, Peter Siddle, Sam Cook, Jamie Porter

Warwickshire: Dominic Sibley, Will Rhodes (Capt), Rob Yates, Pieter Malan, Sam Hain, Michael Burgess (WK), Tim Bresnan, Olly Stone, Danny Briggs, Liam Norwell, Oliver Hannon-Dalby

Umpires: BJ Debenham and IJ Gould

Scorers: AE Choat and P Parkinson

Match Referee: P Whitticase