This blogger would never want to appear smug but with Essex boys Alastair Cook and Ravi Bopara both chalking up centuries in the Second Test against the West Indies today, the post The Essex factor for England from last week certainly seems to hold some water.
If Cook and Bopara can carry this sort of form through to the Ashes series, Essex players could certainly play a large part in England having a successful summer.
By all accounts, Cook's unbeaten 126 wasn't the prettiest innings you'll ever see but he was due a big score and set about getting one methodically.
Bopara's 108 was a more swashbuckling affair and he's surely now grabbed the number three spot for Test series against the Aussies.
Both players have wildly different styles, but both look assured, comfortable and confident at the crease. Bopara will be particularly pleased to have taken his chance when it came round again after false starts in Sri Lanka and the West Indies over the last two winters.
Indeed, Bopara's century today makes him only the fifth Englishman to score centuries in three successive Test innings, joining a list that includes Herbert Sutcliffe, Denis Compton, Geoffrey Boycott and Bopara's batting mentor at Essex, Graham Gooch.
A doff of the cap to Ravi and Cooky...
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