Three matches and three victories. That’s the proud record that the Essex Eagles carry down to The SSE Swalec on Sunday when they meet Glamorgan in the next South Group match in the Royal London One-Day Cup.
Only an inferior run-rate to Somerset denied the Eagles top-placing in the Group following their latest success achieved on Thursday against Gloucestershire at The Cloudfm County Ground.
Chris Silverwood has made one change to the 14-man squad that has seen duty for the first three matches in the competition.
“We are going to rest Matt Quinn purely because of the injury he had and we are trying to look after him and so Paul Walter joins up with the squad,” he explained.
Despite their 100 per cent start, the Eagles Head Coach is determined that his side keep focussed. “One-day cricket is about who plays best on the day and we have to make sure that we go down to Cardiff with the right attitude and make sure that we are the team that plays the best cricket,” he said.
“We need to stick to our game processes and follow our game plan.”
“One of the aspects of our game that I’m really enjoying is the heart and fight our boys are showing. What that means is that we are constantly finding solutions as to how to win a game.”
On a bitterly cold Thursday evening, there were – perhaps understandably – a few errors in the field but Chris is anxious that those are eradicated.
“We can’t look away from the faults, we have to look at them and put things right,” he insisted. “If we want to be the best team, we have to keep trying to improve but overall, I thought our performance was very good.
“Especially with the bat, everything went to plan and we did exactly what we said. It was a good deck and Stuart (Kerrison) prepared a good wicket for us. Gloucestershire have got one or two very dangerous players so it was always going to be difficult for us and the game went to and fro. On paper, 315 looked a good score but with a very good wicket and short boundary on one side, it was always going to be a challenge.
“But we did the job.”
Essex Eagles squad:
Varun Chopra (6) (Ilford)
Nick Browne (10) (South Woodford)
Simon Harmer (11)
Neil Wagner (13)
Tom Westley (21) (Mildenhall)
Paul Walter (22) (Billericay)
Ravi Bopara (25) (Hainault & Clayhall)
Alastair Cook (26) (Maldon)
Ryan ten Doeschate (27) (Harwich) Captain
Dan Lawrence (28) (Chingford)
Adam Wheater (31) Wicket KeeperK (Woodford Wells)
Jamie Porter (44) (Chingford)
Callum Taylor (67) (Swardeston)
Ashar Zaidi (99) (Ilford)
