Essex v Yorkshire: Plunkett proves his fitness for starring role

They had lost six wickets for 39 runs in 11 overs after being sent into bat.

They had made a Horlicks of a promising platform of 163-3 in the 34th over.

Enter Liam Plunkett.

The 30-year-old pace bowler is one of the cleanest strikers of a ball around.

In fact, Plunkett is one of the most powerful and athletic players in the country, the sort of chap who enjoys getting up at an ungodly hour of the morning to do all manner of devilish fitness work.

Plunkett’s forearms are as big as other people’s legs.

He is not so much a sportsman as a specimen.

If Yorkshire were to repair the damage and sellotape together that semi-final ticket, Plunkett the batsman had to produce.

In the space of 32 balls, he plundered 49 not out with three fours and three sixes – one of the maximums off pace bowler Jamie Porter soaring over long-on and crashing into the roof of a house at the Hayes Close end.

Through a combination of talent, judgment and prodigious power, Plunkett helped add 50 for the last-wicket with 17-year-old pace bowler Matthew Fisher, who contributed five.

Their efforts ensured Yorkshire had a competitive total to defend after all of 252-9 – if not quite the one in the region of 300 they had threatened to achieve.

Not content with shining with the bat, Plunkett then delivered in his primary role.

He took 3-58 from 10 overs of hostile pace bowling, snaring the key wickets of Tom Westley, Jesse Ryder and Ravi Bopara, to help reduce Essex from 95-1 in the 19th over to 129-5 in the 25th.

When captain Ryan ten Doeschate and wicketkeeper James Foster added 60 in 14 overs, the pendulum swung back to Essex once more.

But Will Rhodes removed both in a timely five-over spell, and Yorkshire held their nerve to win by 20 runs to set up a semi-final with Gloucestershire at Headingley on Sunday, September 6 with a 10.30 start time.

On paper, this was always a well-matched contest.

Essex have made Chelmsford something of a fortress in one-day cricket, while Yorkshire had five current England players on show – including Plunkett – and a sixth England man if you include Tim Bresnan.

One of that current England quintet was Adam Lyth, who had an Ashes series to forget with the bat, although he will forever treasure his part in the shared success of a series victory.

Lyth’s return to county duty began when he steered the first ball of the game to the third-man boundary off Reece Topley, the left-hander following-up by driving David Masters uppishly to the mid-off rope.

Lyth lost fellow opener Alex Lees with the score on 33 in the seventh over, the captain caught behind as he pushed forward at Topley.

Lyth had advanced to 36 when he was second out at 64, somewhat unluckily dragging a ball from Porter onto the stumps via his leg, a dismissal that summed up his recent fortunes.