The final day of Essex vs Kent at Chelmsford was a dull affair on paper as it quickly became evident that neither side fancied a result (unlike other games around the country) and we'd be off at 5pm pretty much whatever.
So Essex began 94-2 with Mark Pettini on 61 and Billy Godleman on 27, and Mark Davies struck ninth ball of the day with Godleman falling LBW so 94-3. Greg Smith then came, played a glorious drive past mid-off for four, then edged to James Tredwell next ball to give Charlie Shreck his first wicket.
The news was that Alviro Petersen (ankle) and Ravi Bopara (thigh tear) would bat with runners and having been off the field could only come in after 5 wickets down. This meant James Foster came in and he and Pettini played well, Pettini in particular taking 12 off a Shreck over. Ivan Thomas, making his Kent debut replaced Shreck at the River End, and soon had Essex in all sorts of bother, as Foster aimed a powerful cut, only for Brendan Nash to leap at point and cling on and had two wickets in four balls as Pettini, destined for a first hundred for a couple of years, played around a straight one and was LBW for 92. This left Essex a bit stuffed at 140-6, as they were obviously planning on gaining some batting points, which looked some way off.
Now we had the highlight of possibly the season as Petersen (with Tom Westley) and Bopara (with Smith) batted together with runners, this only lasted five balls as Bopara almost ran his first run, so both batsmen dispensed with their runners at the end of the over. Bopara was ordered (via the twelfth man) that he must bat with a runner, so Greg Smith (who'd already gone back to the dressing room and taken off his helmet) came back out looking thoroughly fed up with it all.
Petersen was charging between the wickets and hobbling afterwards, becided that boundaries was the best way forward, smiting one off Davies before spooning to midwicket where Scott Newman took a good diving catch to his right giving Davies his fourth.
Lunch came almost after that wicket at 158-7, and afterwards, with no prospect of a contrived chase happening, Bopara (looking more uncomfortable by the ball) and David Masters then decided to bore their way towards 200, with Masters getting a slightly ironic round of applause when he scored his first run after some long time. The pair ground on and on, and it was a relief when ninth ball with the new ball, Shreck found the edged of Masters bat to Ben Harmison to go for one of the most boring 9s known to humankind (47 balls), the pair had added 23 in 17 overs. 181-8 then became 181-9 since Tymal Mills was LBW first ball to Shreck. Willoughby survived the hat trick ball and the next ball, before Bopara farmed the strike for the first 3 balls from Davies.
Then came the moment of the match, as Bopara (on 19) dabbed the ball to Newman at deep-ish cover and Willoughby went through for the single, but Bopara ambled down the other end as well, along with the runner, which nobody noticed immediately as Newman picked up the ball, only to look up and see Shreck charging in from fine leg gesticulating wildly and shouting to Newman to run out Bopara as he'd left his crease at the striker's end. Bopara heard this as well and started back, but in vain as Newman threw to Geraint Jones to complete the easiest run out of his career.
The incident was similar to the 2010 T20 final when Somerset didn't realise they could run out the batsman. This left Essex 181 all out with 50 overs left in the day, the pick of the Kent bowlers being Davies (24.4-13-20-4). Nothing more interesting was going to happen now and Rob Key and Newman saw through to tea at 38-0, Key playing a nice reverse sweep for four off Westley on the way. After tea, Newman hit a couple of fours off Mills, before giving Westley an easy return catch on 24, 54-2. Ben Harmison was then caught at 2nd slip for 1 off Mills in the next over, 57-2, but that was the last real action as Nash (22 not out) and Key (40 not out) saw out the 10 overs before at 4:50 Kent declared on 92-2 and the players shook hands, Essex taking 6 points and Kent 7.
