Bell takes toll on frenetic Essex

Chaotic first hour for Irani's men brings nightmare end as young tyros see Warwickshire home.

Now that he has been restored to the England squad we discover that Ronnie Irani doesn't walk on water after all. His superlative form has sparked an Essex revival this summer, but within an hour his side had forfeited any chance of winning the thirty-first and last B&H final.

The competition fizzled out, consigned to the ashtray of history, after a contest that can have given satisfaction only to ardent Warwickshire supporters, with their side winning by five wickets with almost 14 overs to spare. It was all too one-sided; Warwickshire were commendably competent in the field, while their young batsmen, Ian Bell and James Troughton, enchanted. But Essex produced a nightmarish performance. In that frenetic first hour, they self-destructed wretchedly.

Maybe they were too tense Ð a Lord's final can have that effect; maybe they were too elaborate Ð they juggled their batting order extravagantly. Their eagerness to exploit the fielding limitations backfired, putting too much strain on their best players. On such grand occasions plain, old-fashioned common sense is often enough. There was no sign of that from the Essex dressing room.

It did not help that Nasser Hussain, so prolific for his county this season, was caught behind from the second ball of the match, which was bowled by Shaun Pollock. This is a routine hazard for any team, but what followed was out of the ordinary. Pollock bowled a no-ball, which meant that Graham Napier was presented with a free hit. He duly dispatched that Ôfree deliveryÕ into the grandstand to open his account.

Without too much melodrama Essex proceeded to 33 for one, whereupon the self-destruct button was pressed again. Napier pulled a delivery from Neil Carter towards the midwicket boundary. Guarding those parts was Troughton, who started running in the wrong direction. Eventually he located the ball and threw it in as Napier was completing his second run and advancing back down the pitch while contemplating a third. Napier was sent back, the ball hit the stumps and sped off towards the boundary. Another run was taken, but eventually the third umpire was summoned to establish that Napier had been out of his ground when the stumps were broken after completing his second.

Such a fiasco might have prompted some discretion from the Essex batsmen. Instead John Stephenson was sent out at number four, even though he has registered three ducks in the competition this season. We never discovered whether he was there to pinch-hit or consolidate. Probably it was the former since he swung loosely at his first ball, which cannoned on to the stumps. Never mind. Darren Robinson would surely dig in. In Carter's next over he moved down the pitch, swung tamely and the ball ballooned to cover. So Essex were 40 for four, and their two best players, Andy Flower and Irani, were at the crease, but under severe pressure.

The situation was already so bleak that Irani had to agonise whether to blast Ð his natural inclination Ð or to graft. For a while he grafted, so Michael Powell sensibly surrounded him when Dougie Brown was bowling. Seven fieldsmen were saving the single and Irani was tempted to go for the big shot. It ended up landing in the hands of Neil Smith at mid-off.

From 61 for five, Essex did tolerably well to reach 181 for eight. Flower batted discreetly, but was ÔstrangledÕ. In Neil Smith's first over he was caught down the leg side glancing. Essex may argue that they reached some sort of respectability because of their long batting line-up with Jonathan Dakin, a batting all-rounder, at number nine. In fact, the depth of their line-up may have undermined them since it led to such a scatterbrained start to their innings.

The unbroken ninth-wicket partnership of 47 between Paul Grayson and Ashley Cowan was the only substantial one of the innings. But this was not enough to give us a contest, even though Warwickshire had lost their openers in the space of seven overs.

Powell, a sound captain, whose only problem is that he is Warwickshire's least-prolific batsman, was caught behind, driving at Cowan. In the next over Nick Knight swished at Irani to give the Essex captain his nineteenth B&H wicket this season, equalling the record set by John Lever and Colin Croft. For an over or two Irani bounded in combatively, eager to impose himself, but it seems unlikely that he will inconvenience too many international batsmen in the next fortnight.

Warwickshire's young tyros, Bell and Troughton, soon made light of the situation. They added 84 from 12 overs. Troughton, elevated into the side this year only because of an injury to Mark Wagh, will be hard to drop now. To say that he is uninhibited is an understatement. He goes for his shots and he's got plenty of them.

Yesterday he specialised in cover drives; there were three in succession against Irani. There is still a wantonness about his play. Old pros might despair about his dismissal ÐÊa heave outside the off-stump against Napier Ð but the talent is there.

Bell has a more calculating head on young shoulders. His strokeplay may not have been quite as breathtaking as Troughton's, but he scored just as swiftly, though more deftly. There were leg-glances and off-glides, as well as more conventional drives through the covers, and he made sure he was still there at the end with 65. Warwickshire is proving a fecund nursery for young batsmen in an English game that is now a smoke-free zone.

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