Porter six-for trumps Brookes onslaught as Essex seal first win

Jamie Porter helped wrap up a nervy first Rothesay County Championship victory of the season for Essex on the final day against Worcestershire with the 22nd five-wicket haul of his career.

The 31-year-old pace bowler, the leading wicket-taker in Division One last season, added three more wickets to the three he had taken the day before as Worcestershire were bowled out for 266, 28 runs short of their target. Porter finished with 6 for 52 from 24.4 overs.

However, the victory was not achieved without some belated anxiety. The 23-year-old allrounder Ethan Brookes, patience personified earlier in his innings, threw caution to the wind when the ninth wicket went down and launched a one-man pyrotechnic show that included seven sixes in a scintillating 88 from 105 balls before becoming Porter's final victim.

"When we got them two wickets down early on I thought we'd get it done before the second new ball," Porter said. "But that was one hell of an innings by Ethan Brookes. If there's one thing I've learnt about Worcestershire, it's they don't give in. They push you all the way to the end. So a lot of credit to them to a) get into the position they were at this morning, where it felt we were slight favourites, and b) literally from the jaws of defeat to put themselves in a position where they almost won it."

With Jacob Duffy blocking at the other end for 0 not out off 12, Brookes helped Worcestershire add 64 for the tenth wicket. His dismissal was not without controversy, too, as Brookes initially stood his ground after Porter rushed in to take a caught-and-bowled right under the batter's nose.

"He was within his rights to question the wicket, but I was 100 percent certain I'd taken it," Porter said. "I've never claimed a catch that wasn't clean in my career, not that I've been in that position too often. But I'm 100 percent certain it carried and the umpire at point confirmed it.

"He's [Brookes] obviously disappointed because he felt like he deserved to be on the right end of that result, and I agree the way he played he did deserve to be on the winning side. But that's the way it goes."

Both teams arrived on day four believing they not only could win but would win. Worcestershire needed 110 more runs and Essex required four wickets. They also needed to get it completed before forecast rain arrived during the afternoon.

That Essex had dug themselves out of a hole after being dismissed for 179 in the first innings and being able to set a target of 295, was largely due to Paul Walter's century, the highest score on a hybrid wicket that was a seamer's paradise.

To prove that point, Porter extracted some extra bounce from the pitch to claim his fourth wicket of the innings with the second ball of his second over of an overcast morning. Worcestershire had only added a quickly scampered single to their overnight 185 for 6 when Matthew Waite played on to depart for 27 after a painstaking two-hour stay.

Worcestershire were still 103 runs away from celebrating their own first win of the campaign when Tom Taylor got a thick edge to another lifting delivery from Porter and was caught at first slip by Walter. Kasun Rajitha, replacing Porter in the attack, then knocked out Ben Allison's leg stump to leave Worcestershire on the precipice.

Once the game was all over bar the shouting, Brookes decided to have some fun, smashing Simon Harmer for six over cow corner and then scooping and sweeping Rajitha for maximums off successive balls. His fourth six, again off Harmer and over Snater's head on the square-leg boundary, took him to a 73-ball fifty.

Another six, his fifth in five overs, landed in the Tom Pearce Stand at the River End before Porter returned to take the new-ball with Worcestershire still requiring 53 to win.

A sixth six, this one hit back over Snater's head, brought up the fifty partnership for the last wicket, in 38 balls, of which Duffy had contributed exactly nought. Even Porter came in for some treatment when Brookes deposited him over fine leg for six No. 7. But next ball, Brookes lobbed the ball up and Porter dived forward to claim the catch.

Worcestershire head coach, Alan Richardson, said: "It was a remarkable innings from Ethan. It just showed the skill level he has and the ability. It was amazing to watch from a position where for love and money it didn't look like we were going to get so close. For him to produce something like that should give him a great deal of confidence.

"The coaching staff here have known Ethan for a long time so when he left Warwickshire we knew there was something there. He got his maiden first-class hundred against Hampshire last year on a spin-friendly wicket was also an amazing innings, and very similar to that in the tempo he played. We believe we've got an exciting cricketer.

"Yes, he did throw the kitchen sink at a few but the way he conducted himself and the fact Jacob [Duffy] faced so few balls was real testament to an intellect cricketer, someone who knew how to go about it. You talk about throwing caution to the wind, I think there was an element of freedom about how he went about it. He's an excellent cricketer."