COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP DIVISION ONE, Southend:
Warwickshire 155 & 155-3 beat Essex 150 & 159 by seven wickets
Warwicks 19pts, Essex 3pts
Match scorecard

Westwood's 61 was his fifth first-class half-century of the summer

Ian Westwood played a captain's innings to help Warwickshire to a seven-wicket win over Essex and boost the Bears' chances of Division One survival.

Essex had begun the day on 78-6, a lead of 73, and saw Matt Walker (39) and David Masters (34) help them reach 159 as Imran Tahir took 4-20.

The Bears lost James Ord early on as they set about their target of 155.

But Westwood (61) and Darren Maddy (39) put on a vital 82 together before Rikki Clarke and Jim Troughton saw them home.

Victory was not enough to lift Warwickshire off the bottom of the table, but it did help them close the gap on the sides above them to such an extent that the bottom six are now separated by only 20 points.

And it had much to do with the efforts of Westwood, who scored the only half-century of the match thanks to a combination of solid defence and the occasional flourish as he compiled his runs from 130 balls, with six fours.

He was finally trapped leg before by Australian leg-spinner Bryce McGain with his side still needing 37 to win, but Troughton and Clarke ensured there would be no dramatic late collapse chasing a tricky little target.

It was certainly more than Warwickshire would have wanted at the start of the day as they were frustrated by a stand of 48 for the eighth wicket between Walker and Masters.

But once Westwood introduced Tahir to the attack it did not take long to wrap up the tail.

The Pakistani leg-spinner had Walker taken at slip by Clarke with his seventh delivery, before trapping both Masters and Andy Carter lbw in a spell that saw him take 3-7 in 22 balls.

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