ESSEX V SURREY - Royal London One-Day Cup - 24 July 2016
Surrey 313-8 (50 Overs). Essex 247 (41.2 Overs). Surrey won by 66 runs.

Jesse Ryder slammed 131 off 110 balls, but could not prevent Essex falling to their first Royal London Cup defeat of the season.

Essex paid the price for losing half the side for 119, chasing Surrey's 313 for eight, though while Ryder was at the crease anything looked possible, particularly when he was putting on 91 in 11 overs with Ashar Zaidi for the sixth wicket. Once both went in the space of three balls to Jade Dernbach, Essex resumed their earlier dismal form and finished 66 runs short.

Dernbach returned figures of four for 41 as Surrey, last season's finalists, won for only the second time in this year's 50-over competition. His colleagues had been thrashed around Chelmsford by Ryder, who included four sixes and 13 fours in his innings, and who needed just 33 balls to move from fifty to three figures.

The basis for Surrey's large total was laid by Steven Davies, who hit 82 from 81 balls, ably supported by substantial innings from Jason Roy (55), Rory Burns (52), Aaron Finch (41) and Ben Foakes (45) after they had elected to bat.

Finch put on 94 for the first wicket with Roy to lay the foundations before he was beaten by one that kept low from David Masters to depart after 41 balls with five fours and an effortless six over midwicket.

Masters, Graham Napier and Zaidi kept the shackles on the openers until Matt Quinn returned for the 13th over and Roy hit him 6, 4, 6 from successive balls to put the Surrey innings into full swing.

Roy reached his half-century off 52 balls with a reverse-swept four off Dan Lawrence. But eight balls later the England batsman fell victim to an incredible sleight of hand by James Foster, who whipped off the bails when Roy reached for a ball down legside from Lawrence. A bemused Roy departed for 55, including five fours and two sixes.

Davies and Dom Sibley had posted fifty for the third wicket in nine overs before Sibley drove Bopara to midwicket where Zaidi held on to the catch. But Davies moved to his personal fifty from 52 balls, the same as Roy, but less flamboyantly and with only three boundaries.

The one-time one-day international found another willing partner in Burns and together they put on 92 in 14 overs. Davies departed for 82 when he moved well outside off-stump to try and deflect Ryan ten Doeschate towards third man and was caught by Foster. Burns pulled Napier for his seventh four to bring up his half-century in 47 balls, but next ball tried something similar and was caught on the midwicket boundary by Nick Browne.

Matt Pillans lofted one down Bopara's throat at long-leg to give ten Doeschate a second wicket, and then Gareth Batty followed suit - except it was ten Doeschate taking the catch on the same spot and Bopara claiming his second wicket.

Surrey were helped past the 300 mark when Quinn was hit for a third six to long-off by Ben Foakes and finished with 56 from his six-over spell. Bopara, meanwhile, restricted himself to just five overs, but took a third wicket when his last ball found Foakes looking to heave the six that would have brought up his fifty, and missing the ball completely.

Mark Footitt broke the Essex opening partnership when he had Tom Westley caught in the covers by Stuart Meaker, and then Browne swished outside off-stump at Dernbach to give a catch behind.

Bopara went to an outstanding catch by Davies, diving low down to his right at first slip, and Lawrence wafted at Meaker to give Foakes a catch down the leftside.

Ryder lofted Batty over Sibley at deep mid-off for his sixth four to bring up Essex's hundred and his own fifty, which took 53 balls, and then drove the same bowler high over long off for six. But after a 50-run partnership for the fifth wicket, Ryder lost ten Doeschate lbw to Matt Pillans.

Zaidi cleared the sightscreen at the Hayes Close End for six off Batty, but he played second fiddle to Ryder. The Kiwi added two more maximums off Pillans, one straight, the other over midwicket. He went to 99 with his final six, pulled over midwicket off Meaker, and two balls later chopped the single that took him to his century from 86 balls.

The returning Dernbach broke the rampant partnership when he had Zaidi caught down low behind by Foakes, and then had Ryder caught on the midwicket boundary by Roy. Foster went lbw to Sibley, Napier provided a fourth catch behind for Foakes and Masters gave a catch to Finch to end the game nearly nine overs early.

Jesse Ryder said: "I thought I might have gone five or 10 overs too soon. But I tried to get it down to a run a ball, which it nearly was, but I needed someone to hang with me and it would have made it a lot easier."

Ryder had not played for 16 days through injury, and said: "The calf is still not right and was playing up for most of the time out there. But I managed to get through without it getting any worse, so we'll see how it is tomorrow. I told the guys, 'If it goes, it goes'. I guess that's the risk you take if you come back too early.

"Yes, I probably have come back too early body-wise, but I wanted to play and take the risk. I've missed a couple of games, and I said I wanted to play these last four or five white-ball games. But I've been lucky enough to get through today and hopefully I'll be available on Tuesday against Glamorgan.

"Me and Ash are similar batsmen - we see the ball, hit the ball. We back ourselves. He came out and made it easy. If we were able to get a boundary early in an over, we knew we could milk seven an over. I know he was disappointed to get out and if he'd been able to hang in there it might have made a difference."

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