Kent Spitfires v Essex Eagles
Vitality Blast
The Spitfire Ground, St. Lawrence
Friday 18 September
2pm start
The Eagles are looking to continue their current run of success in the Vitality Blast when they travel to The Spitfire Ground to face Kent Spitfires on Friday.
The Eagles have enjoyed back-to-back wins this week after beating Sussex Sharks at Hove on Monday and Hampshire at The Ageas Bowl on Wednesday.
With all teams having just 2 matches to play, Kent Spitfires start the match in second position in the South Group on 10 points and victory would guarantee their place in the quarter-finals of the competition.
Meanwhile, the Eagles start the match with 6 points, 3 fewer than Sussex Sharks who currently occupy third place.
The top two in each of the three regional groups will be joined by the two highest third-placed points scorers.
The Eagles therefore need to win both of their remaining two matches (they meet Sussex Sharks on Sunday at The Cloudfm County Ground) and hope that other results are in their favour.
Plom’s View
Aron Nijjar and Jack Plom made the headlines with the ball on Wednesday with slow left-armer Nijjar returning career-best figures of 3 for 22 whilst Plom removed England batsman James Vince with the first delivery of his 4 over spell. It was his maiden senior wicket for the Club amongst personal figures of 2 for 18.
Basildon born Plom, who is the latest player to make the First Team from the Essex Academy admits that the win kept the Eagles hopes of making the quarter-finals alive.
He said: “It was a bit of a slow start to the tournament but we still have a slim chance thanks to the boost of back-to-back wins.
“A couple of the boys said it (the pitch) was a bit slow and sticky early on but the batters did their job and the bowlers followed it up.
“We had our plans and we stuck to them, Harmy trusted us bowlers and that is what we like.
“We got wickets early after he talked about attacking the stump, we did that and it came off, and then we kept the pressure on in the middle overs and the wickets kept coming our way.
“We are very happy for Aron [Nijjar]. He bowled his 4 overs straight which some people don’t deal well with. The skipper had faith in him and he bowled really well.”
Squad News
Essex will select their starting XI from a 14-man squad with Michael Pepper continuing to deputise behind the stumps for Adam Wheater who is unavailable due to family reasons.
Record between the two sides
The teams have met on 33 previous occasions in the competition with the Spitfires enjoying 17 successes and Essex 15 whilst 1 match was declared a no result.
