The Eagles are in action on Sunday when they face Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl, Southampton in a Vitality Blast match that commences at 2:30pm.
The teams fought out a thrilling tie in the reverse fixture at The Cloudfm County Ground 3 weeks ago. Chasing the Hampshire score of 170 for 5, the Eagles required 13 runs to win from the final over. Although 11 runs were collected from the first 5 deliveries, including a 6 and a 4 by Ravi Bopara, he was run out attempting a match-winning second run off the final ball as the Eagles closed their innings on 170 for 8.
Yesterday rain forced the abandonment of the match with Gloucestershire at Chelmsford without a ball bowled.
Bopara admitted that the Eagles were frustrated about Friday’s call-off, saying: “It was a shame because we sat down after the defeat by Glamorgan earlier in the week and talked about how we wanted and needed to change things and how we want to approach T20 cricket.
“Our T20 cricket has obviously been below par this season but it has been a good learning curve. We have been trying some ideas which have not come off but now it’s all about learning for next year and at least we know what we need to do to improve for next season.
“We had some good plans in place as to how we wanted to change that and they were going to be implemented against Gloucestershire but now we’ll have to wait until Sunday to see how those ideas work out.”
Essex Eagles squad to face Hampshire:
Ryan ten Doeschate (27) (C)
Ravi Bopara (25)
Varun Chopra (6)
Matt Coles (1)
Sam Cook (16)
Simon Harmer (11)
Dan Lawrence (28)
Michael Pepper (19) (WK)
Matt Quinn (94)
Peter Siddle (64)
Paul Walter (22)
Adam Wheater (31) (WK)
Ashar Zaidi (99)
