Date-stamped : 11 Jul97 - 14:22 NatWest Trophy: Essex kept on right path by force of Law By Christopher Martin-Jenkins at Chelmsford Essex (287-3) bt Worcs (286-9) by 7 wkts ON a flat pitch at Chelmsford, Stuart Law`s cultured 100 was an even purer exhibition of strokeplay than Graeme Hick`s immense- ly powerful 146 for Worcestershire. In essence that is why Essex won, but they also had greater strength in depth, a confident un- broken part- nership of 136 by Ronnie Irani and Paul Grayson carrying them home with 15 balls and seven wickets in hand. Worcestershire, as they have all season, badly missed the miserly bowling of Richard Illingworth, who hopes to return next week after his slow recuperation from a dislocated bowling shoul- der. Further handicapped by the absence of Gavin Haynes, with a back strain, and by an injury to Phil Newport after he had bowled only six overs, Tom Moody called on seven bowlers without using one of his specialists. Bobby Chapman neither batted nor bowled. He must have been disappointed but he may also have been lucky. Such was the clean and classical striking of Law, almost anyone would have seemed to be bowling yesterday merely so that he could display the full range of his art. Opening the batting in pursuit of Worcestershire`s 286 for nine - almost a one-man show except when Reuben Spiring was bustling his way to 47 in a third-wicket stand of 223 - Law scored a hundred off 87 balls, with 11 fours and two straight sixes. He made the early departures of Paul Prichard, driving loose- ly, and Nasser Hussain, clipping Newport off his legs to square- leg, seem of no consequence. It might not have been so easy for him, however, if Irani had not batted with great maturity, playing the reliable second fid- dle to the virtuoso during a third-wicket partnership of 132 and quite content, even when Law had gone to a flat, lofted drive to long-on, to allow an equal share to Grayson during the last movement of the concer- to. Grayson had suffered the furious height of Hick`s hitting ear- lier in the game but proved once again what a valuable acquisi- tion he has been by reaching his second successive NatWest fifty off only 58 balls, without resorting to anything unorthodox. Only Hick`s tidy off-spin was treated with much respect. Essex were greatly helped during the first stage of the game by the accuracy of Neil Williams, playing only because Mark Ilott was suffering from a bruised heel. On a sunny day and the truest of surfaces he swung and seamed the ball far less than usual but he still brought one back to have Moody lbw on the front foot in the fifth over, and both Hick and Tim Curtis played him almost as much with their front pads for a while as they did with their bats. Curtis blossomed after taking 15 overs to reach double figures but it is strange that in his 19th and last season this staunch- est of openers should still be bringing his bat down in a line from first slip to mid-on. Whatever may be said about Hick`s 46 Test caps, and with every respect to Curtis, it is a travesty that he should have played five Tests for England, Law only one for Australia. Hick`s Test career may possibly be over but, at only 31, he remains an asset to any side in one-day cricket and he survived appeals for catches at the wicket when 18 and 34 to bludgeon five sixes, two in one over from Grayson in which he plundered 26. Three sixes went out of the ground and one struck a spectator, Doris Day, through the open window of the Essex members` room. A ca- reer in films was not threatened by her cut eye, but she had to be taken to hospital. Peter Such, his length as reliable as ever, escaped the pun- ishment and Essex fielded well as Worcestershire contrived to lose six wickets for 17 runs in the last 19 balls of their in- nings. It was at the start and finish of the Worcestershire innings that Essex won the game, but though Trevor Bailey named Irani as man of the match, Law was the man who made it easy. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)