Essex Eagles travel to the Ageas Bowl where they take on Hampshire on Friday night starting at 7pm to continue the NatWest T20 Blast campaign.
The Eagles find themselves at the wrong end of the South Group table having only won two of the 9 matches thus far, although two of their last three matches have been no-results after rain washed out the matches with Glamorgan and Gloucestershire at The SSE SWALEC and Cloudfm County Ground, respectively.
With only five matches remaining in the qualifying section of the competition, Head Coach Chris Silverwood admits that his team need to put a winning run together if they are to keep their hopes of reaching the knockout stages.
“We have been inconsistent in this competition but that is an accusation that you could level at a number of sides in this group where anyone is capable of beating another,” he said.
“That said, we probably need to win four of our last five matches to have any chance of reaching the quarter-finals but we are capable of doing that. We have been so inconsistent and that has been really frustrating for the coaching staff, the players and I’m sure all our supporters.
“Two of our last three matches were washed out so that was annoying but the weather has affected a number of sides so we can’t use that as an excuse. One of our two wins came against Hampshire at Chelmsford when we produced an excellent performance and showed what we were capable of; it was our stand-out win so far in the competition this season. Now we need to be at our best on Friday for the return fixture and throughout the remainder of the T20 Blast season.
“Individually there have been some good contributions but now we need a number of players to do that collectively. We know that the talent is there and that we are capable of a good team performance but we need to show that again starting on Friday down at Southampton.”
Essex Eagles squad to face Hampshire:
Ryan ten Doeschate (27) Captain
James Foster (7) Wicket-keeper
Mohammad Amir (5)
Ravi Bopara (25)
Varun Chopra (6)
Matt Dixon (30)
Simon Harmer (11)
Dan Lawrence (28)
Jamie Porter (44)
Callum Taylor (67)
Paul Walter (22)
Adam Wheater (31)
Ashar Zaidi (99)
