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Ten Doeschate seals Essex’s impressive title run
- Updated: September 13, 2016
Essex 275 for 6 (ten Doeschate 109*, Wheater 59) trail Glamorgan 286 (Carlson 119, Morgan 55, Napier 4-46) by 11 runs Scorecard
Look out Division One, the Essex boys are coming. Ryan ten Doeschate afterwards played down the effect his captaincy has had on Essex winning promotion but he led from the front to haul his side over the line in their penultimate match of the season, the Division Two title finally secured to raucous approval on a sweltering afternoon in Chelmsford. Ten Doeschate struck the single that took Essex to 250 and a second batting point – enough to move them clear of all challengers – and his fourth hundred of a most fulfilling first season in charge duly followed.
The Championship has been a matter of delayed gratification for Essex fans, having seen their side finish third in each of the last three years, and they had to endure one or two trying moments against second-from-bottom Glamorgan before the job was completed. With only one promotion spot going this season, there was no margin for error but they will now return to Division One for the first time since 2010. A trip to Canterbury next week will serve only as a coronation.
“We made it hard for ourselves today and it would have been a lot nicer to fly past the winning post but as much as we tried to avoid it, this game was really about getting those bonus points and making sure we didn’t have to go to Kent with any work to do,” ten Doeschate said. “Everyone’s delighted, it’s a bit weird winning it on day two…but I think it’s more a sense of relief up there and a great achievement to achieve what we set out to do at the start of the year.”
Promotion was the stated goal and, in Chris Silverwood’s first campaign as head coach, Essex produced their most dominant Championship cricket in more than a decade. They have led practically from start to finish (Kent spent a week on top in July having played a game more), their six victories so far all by the imposing margins of either an innings or ten wickets.
Three of those came as the season approached its climax as Essex, in ten Doeschate’s words, carefully “eliminated” their rivals one by one. After Kent were unexpectedly beaten by Northamptonshire last week, they came into this match knowing that bonus points could be enough; five were needed to extinguish Kent’s chances, six in the event that …
