Cook and Chopra steer Essex home

PRO40 DIVISION ONE, Chelmsford:
Essex 249-3 beat Hampshire 246-5 by seven wickets (Essex 2pts, Hants 0pts)

Match scorecard

Cook drives on his way to 104 as Essex beat Hampshire

Alastair Cook and Varun Chopra both hit centuries as Essex coasted to a seven-wicket Pro40 Division One win over Hampshire at Chelmsford.

After coming together with Essex in trouble on 26-2 chasing 247, the pair shared 192 for the third wicket to see their side home with seven balls left.

Cook eventually fell for 104 off 102 balls, while Chopra ended 101 not out.

James Vince had earlier hit a one-day best 93 and Liam Dawson 69 not out as Hampshire posted 246-5.

It was Vince's maiden Pro40 half-century, but the game belonged to Chopra and in particular Cook, whose century provided the England selectors with a perfect reminder of his one-day abilities given the injury scare to Joe Denly ahead of the series with Australia.

Essex's reply had got off to a terrible start, with Dominic Cork trapping captain Mark Pettini leg before for two, before Hamza Riazuddin had big-hitting Graham Napier caught by Imran Tahir.

But the Hampshire attack met their match in Cook and Chopra as they seized the initiative for the hosts and shared an Essex record one-day partnership for the third wicket against Hampshire.

Cook brought up his century off exactly 100 balls, including 12 fours, but then offered a simple return catch to David Balcombe as he got a leading edge trying to turn one off his legs.

When he fell Essex needed just 29, but there was still time for Chopra to complete his second domestic one-day century, off 106 balls with nine fours, as he and Ryan ten Doeschate completed the home side's second Pro40 victory of the season.

Defeat for Hampshire also ended any hope they had of winning this season's Pro40 title.

Essex batsman Varun Chopra told BBC Essex:

"Things have gone very well for me in one-day cricket, I've got a lot of fifties so it was nice to get a three-figure score.

"It was good to see the side home and hopefully we can keep going well in all forms of cricket.

"My runs haven't been so great in Championship cricket, obviously that's my bread and butter and I want to be a solid four-day cricketer."