When Andrew Gale was out for 64 Carnegie's charge to Lord's ran out of steam

Thursday, 3rd July 2008

The Gough Lord's fairytale farewell is gone

Darren Gough’s dream of a Lord’s final in his last season as a professional cricketer is over after Yorkshire Carnegie were beaten by his former county Essex in today’s Friends Provident Trophy semi-final at Chelmsford.

The Tykes were humbled by 87 runs in a game which they looked on course to win midway through their chase of 286 in 50 overs.

Captain Gough’s men were bowled out for 198 inside 43 overs after they had been 140-1 in the 30th over with Andrew Gale and Anthony McGrath in the midst of an encouraging second wicket partnership.

The pair eventually put on 86 in 19 overs before Gale’s dismissal, a run out by Ryan ten Doeschate courtesy of a mid-pitch mix up, for 64 started a collapse of five wickets for 15 runs in eight overs.

McGrath reached his half century off 84 balls with three fours and three sixes, but was caught two balls later at the fourth attempt by ten Dosechate off the bowling of Pakistan leg-spinner Danish Kaneria.

ten Doeschate, the Dutch international all-rounder who was born in South Africa, then claimed three wickets of his own to completely kill the game.

The 28 year-old trapped Gerard Brophy lbw, had Adil Rashid caught behind and then bowled Jacques Rudolph. He had claimed three wickets in two overs, finishing with 3-30 from seven in total.

To put the icing on the cake, he later claimed another catch, that of Rana Naved-ul-Hasan off the bowling of Ravi Bopara.

England one-day international all-rounder Bopara claimed two late wickets, while Kaneria finished with 3-32 from 8.5 overs. David Masters got the other wicket to fall. All in all, Yorkshire lost their last nine wickets for 58 runs in 13 overs.

Earlier, Essex had reached a testing 285-8 with many people wondering whether it was slightly below par on a small and fast Chelmsford outfield.

England opener Alastair Cook led the way with 95, while big hitting specialist Graham Napier creamed six sixes in a late 34-ball 61. The Eagles always had wickets in hand, reaching 130-2 after 30 overs.

And in the end they showed the Tykes exactly how to maximise the latter stages of an innings.

Tim Bresnan, Rana and Rich Pyrah all picked up two wickets apiece. Pakistani Rana was the pick with 2-41 from his ten overs. Bresnan also affected two run outs.

Bopara hit 37 in a third wicket partnership of 98 with Cook - but there was no real sign of acceleration, which obviously suited the Tykes.

Gough bowled far better than figures of 0-56 from his allotted ten suggest, a couple of early edges from Cook’s bat for four summed up his day.

However, Essex’s innings exploded in the last ten overs. Napier, who only recently crunched 152 off 58 balls with 16 sixes in a Twenty20 game, led an assault of 101 runs from the last ten overs and 63 off the last five.

A combination of Napier’s hitting and ten Doeschate’s brilliance in the field ultimately swung the game.

Yorkshire have an immediate chance to bounce back on Monday when they travel to Durham in the quarter finals of the Twenty20 Cup.

PREVIEW

Yorkshire Carnegie have left Chris Taylor and David Wainwright out of the 13-man squad today. A winning performance will see them through to a Lord's Final on 16th August and the opportunity to win their first limited overs trophy since 2002.

Saturday's match which is followed quickly by a Twenty20 quarter-final on Monday in Durham are massive games which will go a long way to ultimately dictating the success of the 2008 season. The Friends Provident Trophy semi-final against Essex Eagles is also an opportunity for the team to secure a big Lord's send off for their captain and talisman, Darren Gough.

Essex however, are not to be underestimated. A very good one-day side they have also joined Yorkshire Carnegie in the quarter-final stages of the Twenty20 Cup. With home advantage they will be tough to beat, but then the same was said of the Gloucestershire Gladiators, the team that Yorkshire Carnegie beat by six wickets in the quarter-finals. 

Essex beat Leicestershire in the last round by 118 runs and have England players Ravi Bopara and Alastair Cook at their disposal. Bopara blasted a brilliant unbeaten 201 in the quarter-final as the Eagles cruised into the semi-finals hitting 18 fours and 10 sixes from only 138 balls. 

Essex also have Graham Napier in their ranks, the man who created domestic Twenty20 Cup history recently with an astonishing batting display as he amassed an unbreaten 152 against Somerset. The spectacular innings included 16 sixes and took him only 58 balls. The Carnegie attack will be hoping it was a once in a lifetime knock.

Yorkshire Carnegie include Rana Naved in a 13-man squad.  The Pakistani seamer, out since tearing a hamstring in the Championship against Surrey in May, has played three 2nd XI matches in the past week and has come through unscathed.

YORKSHIRE CARNEGIE SQUAD

ESSEX EAGLES SQUAD

J Gallian, A Cook, M Pettini (capt), R Bopara, G Flower, J Foster (w/k), R ten Doeschate, J Middlebrook, G Napier, D Masters and D Kaneria  

RADIO COVERAGE

The BBC will be covering the game both online and on 774 MW. Listen to the live commentary by clicking on the link in the Upcoming Matches section at the top right hand of the homepage. Email Dave Callaghan and his co-commentators at callyatthecricket@yahoo.com