Shah and Essex ready to spoil Yorks party

By Paul Hiscock

Although Essex are resigned to spending another year in Division Two of the County Championship, they will have a significant part to play in deciding the outcome of this year's promotion race when they take on second-placed Yorkshire at Chelmsford this week.
 
One batsman currently enjoying a rich vein of form for the home side is Owais Shah, who stroked his way to a classy 161 last week to underpin victory against Hampshire.
 
That was the second century in four visits to the crease in the Championship for the former England and Middlesex batsman, who took 138 off the Glamorgan attack at Colchester less than a month ago, and the player admits that he is now delighted with his form.
 
"It had been a really frustrating time for me," said Shah. "I got injured during the Twenty20 campaign and, because I wasn't playing, I lost a lot of rhythm in my batting and wasn't hitting the ball as well as I wanted to, but I'm now feeling in a much happier place.
 
"Although I got a decent score at Colchester, I still wasn't 100 per cent where I wanted to be, but against Hampshire my game was exactly what I wanted and that helped the team put on a big score in the second innings which helped us to win the game."
 
Essex have nothing to show for their efforts this season but 33-year-old Shah is upbeat about the future for the county."It's a pity the season isn't going on a bit longer because we've really hit our straps in four-day cricket now,"he added. "I guess that's something that we need to work on because we need to get our game together a bit sooner in the summer rather than late on.
 
"We were without our leading bowler, David Masters, against Hampshire so to win a game in those circumstances really bodes well for our future in four-day cricket. Let's not get away from the fact that bowlers win you matches and I  think our bowlers did magnificently well against Hampshire.
 
"As a team we've been in really good form in these last four or five weeks in Championship cricket. You can't control when you hit your straps but I think if we can get into the mindset that we are in right now earlier next season, it might help us achieve the high standards that we have set ourselves."
 

Date: 10/09/2012 15:38:37 by Paul Hiscock
In: Yorkshire | Today | Essex |