Date-stamped : 06 Aug96 - 18:31 Tour Match Essex v South Africa 'A' Chelmsford 6 August 1996 ====> REPORT Tour Match: Weakened Essex succumb By Ralph Dellor at Chelmsford South Africa A (287-6) bt Essex (276-6) by 11 runs THIS was a relatively uneventful victory for the South Africans to maintain their unbeaten record on tour. With Nasser Hussain and Ronnie Irani on Test duty at Headingley, and Stuart Law and Graham Gooch rested, it was a weakened Essex side. The absence of Law will have Essex followers eagerly scanning the weather forecasts prior to next Tuesday`s NatWest semi-final against Surrey. Having failed to get a dispensation for the Queenslander to delay his departure to join the Australian party to tour Sri Lanka by 24 hours, Essex have decided that Law will play at the Oval only if the match is likely to be completed in a day. Without Law and the others, the Essex batting lacked the firepower to challenge the tourists` total. That was based on a fluent second wicket partnership between Gerhadus Liebenberg and Herschelle Gibbs. They put on 103 in 17 overs employing the sim- ple expedient of hitting the bad balls and running like hares when no boundary was available. In a partnership with Mark Ilott as the innings came to a close, Wilson struck out cleanly to reach 50. Source :: Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by Ravi (sista@*.latech.edu) ====> REPORT On a day that was as changeable as their fortunes, Essex got off to bright start when Palframan put up an easy catch to Prichard at mid-on. He was replaced by Gibbs who drove Andrew`s first delivery for 4. It was a sign of things to come. Liebenberg took 12 off Ilott`s next over and after 10 overs, they had pushed the tourists` score to 50. Duncan Ayres fared no better. After sizing him up, Liebenberg took two fours off his first over. Ayres must have muttered a few words of annoyance under his breath, however, when Gibbs skied his last delivery and, despite loud cries of `got it`, Rollins still managed to get tangled up with Andrew and Prichard. It was a costly muddle. Gibbs and Liebenberg progressed inexorably towards the 100 mark, which came in the 18th over. Liebenberg`s half-century came in the 82nd minute with a deft little tap to mid-on. Gibbs, however, was denied his fifty, first by Cousin`s spectacular interception of a certain 4 at the long- off boundary and then by Grayson, who, to everyone`s surprise, clean bowled him. His stand with Liebenberg had added 103 runs in just 16 overs. Gibbs was replaced by Ackerman and Such, who had not had much joy, was replaced by Wilson, a talented all-rounder, making his first-team debut. Wilson soon made his presence felt. He had Liebenberg neatly stumped by Rollins and then, with the score at 169, contrived to have Ackerman caught behind. Crookes was the next to go, run out on 31, another victim of Jon Lewis` sharp fielding, but not before he and Boje had taken the score to a healthy 215. Boje`s wicket was the next to fall. He had been playing a succession of glorious sweeps and scoring quite freely when he misjudged a delivery from Such. Po- thas and Klusener con- tinued to pile on the runs, demonstrating the same skilful stroke play and speed between the wickets that characterised the South Africa `A` innings. With the score at 287 for 6 after 50 overs, the umpires very sensibly decided to adjourn early for lunch. You could almost hear the Essex stomachs rumbling. Essex, playing without any of their senior batsmen, opened their reply with Robinson and the untried Andrew Hibbert. Hibbert, who suddenly found himself on strike after Pringle`s first delivery went for a leg-bye, took 3 off the second ball. For the next four overs, however, both Pringle and Smith bowled with such aggres- sion that at the end of 5 overs, Essex had scored a mere 17 runs, 6 of those being extras. Hibbert never really got into his stride. Pringle passed him so many times, the oth- er fielders were beginning to look bored. Runs were few and far between, and when they came, they were invariably hurried sin- gles. After 10 overs, the opening pair had contrived some 30 runs between them, well below the asking rate of 5.76 runs per over. Just when the two openers looked a little steadier, Lieben- berg brought on Klusener and Gibbs to replace Smith and Prin- gle respectively. Robinson went on Gibbs` second delivery, caught by Adams while driving to mid-off. He was replaced by Jon Lewis, an underrated talent at Essex, who, on the rare occasions he has been selected, has al- ways looked skilful and aggres- sive, both in the field and with the bat. Lewis set about the South African attack and runs began to flow more freely. Adams, who replaced Gibbs at the Hayes Close End, continued to beat Hib- bert with just about every ball, even- tually tempting him to give an easy catch to Palframan, bringing to an end possibly the most traumatic 90 minutes of Hibbert`s life. He was replaced by Rollins, batting up the order, a sensi- ble decision by Pri- chard, as the new partnership was able to in- ject a sense of urgency into the batting that hitherto had been lacking. Runs came steadily and although Lewis rode his luck on occasions, things gradually seemed to be swinging Essex`s way. With the score at 140, Adams coaxed Lewis into setting up an easy catch for his captain. Grayson, who replaced Lewis, was unable to emu- late his performance at Lord`s last week, lasting just a cou- ple of minutes before being stumped by Pothas. A forlorn cry of `come on, Essex` went up from the hospitality tents. Rollins responded by skying an innocuous delivery from Boje to Gibbs at mid-off. He was replaced by Danny Wilson, who, after a couple of wild swings, calmed down and played what was to prove the best Essex innings of the day. When Prichard was caught at mid-on by Boje with the score at 196, this promising young batsman was joined by Ilott and although they could not match the 10 runs an over required, nevertheless made a determined stand. Ilott scored 42 in an unbeaten innings that included 2 fours, 2 sixes and a hatful of daring singles while Wilson`s included 1 six and 3 fours. With 25 runs needed from the last over, Wilson took six off the second ball and for one mad moment, it looked as if he might get them. He didn`t. Contributed by N. Thumpston (100344.1532@CompuServe.COM)