Essex 219 for 3 (Das 100*, Thain 83) beat Nottinghamshire 218 (Montgomery 52, Richards 5-31) by seven wickets
Nottinghamshire Outlaws' hopes of reaching the knock-out phases of the Metro Bank One-Day Cup were ended when an Essex side who were already eliminated still pulled off a crushing victory by seven wickets at Trent Bridge. Robin Das, opening and still unbeaten, posted a maiden white-ball century off the last ball of the match.
The 20-year old Jamal Richards, one of five in the Essex side raised like Das in north-east London, earlier claimed 5 for 31 with wholeheated, bustling pace. His best figures in all cricket halted an Outlaws surge to 96 for 1 and later helped induce a plummet from 163 for 4 to 218 all out despite Ben Slater's 47 and 52 from South African Matt Montgomery.
Other youngsters then saw Essex maturely home as Das and Noah Thain, neither of them yet past his 23rd birthday, put on 185 for the third wicket. Das finished with 100 from 119 balls whilst the teenage Thain fell with victory five runs away for 83, his best in Essex cricket so far.
If they could not quite match Essex's partnership record for the third wicket (268 by Graham Gooch and Keith Fletcher, both veterans at the time) the elder statesman would dearly have relished their stand.
Chasing 219, Luc Benkenstein soon went to a spectacular catch on the midwicket boundary as Jack Haynes, running back, caught the ball, threw it up, went over the rope but skipped back to grab it a second time. And Rob Lord made it two wickets in his opening 13 balls when Tom Westley lost off stump to one that kept low.
But as Das and Thain went forward with a calm judgement that belied their inexperience, the asking rate, initially 4.38, remained between 4.19 and 4.55 throughout the reply's first 35 overs. At this point they raced forward as the match was claimed with 39 balls to spare.
The Outlaws, put in, had earlier built a 40-run platform from the day's first eight overs before Haynes, reprieved on five and 14, edged a slash to fall finally for 17.
In his 64th first-team match in all formats, Feroze Khushi at last saw his off-spin called up for a maiden outing but it was Richards, the sixth bowler of seven employed, who ended a 56-run stand when Slater was held by Khushi at backward point off his third ball and Haseeb Hameed was bowled for nought by his fifth, a beauty.
When Richards, one of seven men aged 25 or under in the line-up, ended an impressive 33 from teenager Freddie McCann, Nottinghamshire, losing three in six overs, were 123 for 4 in the 26th.
Tom Moores revived things with 33 from only 28 balls but fell in the deep attempting a second successive six over midwicket before Lyndon James, Liam Patterson-White and Calvin Harrison all came and went cheaply in a disastrous half hour.
The last of the trio was wonderfully caught by the leaping Khushi to bring Richards his fourth success at the start of his second spell and he ended things when Montgomery, flailing, miscued to deep cover with 16 balls unused.
