Essex v Yorkshire CCC: Tykes look to break down fortress Chelmsford

Since the start of the 2019 season, when they won the last of their County Championships, Essex have played 37 fixtures at the ground in the four-day tournament, winning 21, drawing 13 and losing just three.

Throw in three wins out of three in the Bob Willis Trophy there in 2020, a competition they also won, and which replaced the Championship during that Covid year, and it is a measure of the task that Yorkshire face in the fixture that starts in Chelmsford on Friday.

Anthony McGrath, who presided over 35 of those 37 fixtures in that stellar sequence from 2019 onwards, before swapping head coach duties at Essex for those at Yorkshire during the winter, acknowledges it will be a difficult assignment.

“They’ve got an unbelievable record at home,” said McGrath, who spent nine seasons with Essex, the last seven of them in charge having previously been assistant coach and batting coach.

“I think any venue is a little bit intimidating if a team is very good at home, and I think it’s been a bit of a perfect storm (for opposition teams) with Simon Harmer as well (the prolific off-spinner), the facilities and so on.

“The ball has spun, and they do have that great record down there, so you can buy into the fact that it’s going to spin from ball one as well, but it doesn’t always do that.

“The facilities are probably not as good as they could be for various reasons, so, if you are on the end of a losing game there, you can start to look and blame other things, and I've seen that a lot over the last few years.

“That’s one thing we wouldn’t do - obviously we want to go there and win - but I actually think it’s a good place to play cricket.”

Yorkshire have won one, drawn one and lost two of their last four Championship games at Chelmsford since McGrath played in the 239-run triumph that clinched promotion for the White Rose back in 2012, his final first-class appearance.

Their most recent victory there, in 2018, was one of the most extraordinary games the club has been involved in, Yorkshire prevailing by 91 runs despite being bowled out for 50 in their first innings.

Coincidentally, a record of won one, drawn one and lost two is also Yorkshire’s this season going into the game.

McGrath will hope to bring his inside knowledge to bear as Yorkshire seek to improve on that indifferent start to the campaign - as will Mick Lewis, the club’s new bowling coach, who followed him to Headingley - as the White Rose attempt to climb from second-bottom in the fledgling First Division table.

“Myself and Mick have been there a lot so conditions and team-wise, we know all about them, but it's how we perform,” stressed McGrath.

“You can do all the prep you want, but we've got to play better with the players that we've got.

“I've got a lot of good memories down there, and we’ve been putting all that into the players this week. We’re looking forward to it.”

The lopsided nature of the fixture list, with First Division teams playing some sides twice and others once, is but one consequence of the broken county schedule.

Yorkshire also face Essex at York from June 29 but McGrath is looking at the tough double-header in positive terms.

“It’ll be a good test this week, and playing them twice this year is a good chance to try and get two over them,” he said.

“Both teams will clearly want to beat each other, but going there again … it’s always going to hold a special place for me, is Chelmsford, and the people down there.

“It'll be nice to get out there but, once we get underway, we've got a job to do and we want to take the points, because obviously after a disappointing week this week (which brought a five-wicket defeat to Warwickshire at Headingley) we need to get momentum going and finish this four-game block strong with the three games we've got left.

“We’ll need to cover all bases because although Chelmsford has been green this year, I know from experience that it can spin there as well.”

Yorkshire have two spinners in their 14-man squad (Dom Bess and Dan Moriarty), and Essex two in their 12-man party (Simon Harmer and Matt Critchley).

Essex are without pace bowler Sam Cook after his call-up for the Zimbabwe Test and are also without the injured Jordan Cox and Paul Walter.

Yorkshire squad: Bairstow (captain), Bean, Bess, Buckingham, Coad, Duke, Hill, Lyth, Moriarty, Revis, Tattersall, Thompson, Wharton, White.

Essex squad: Westley (captain), Allison, Critchley, Das, Elgar, Harmer, Jones, Pepper, Porter, Rajitha, Snater, Thain.