Hampshire v Essex Eagles
Royal London Cup
The Ageas Bowl
Thursday 22 July
11am start
Essex Eagles commence their Royal London Cup season on Thursday with a trip to the South Coast to face Hampshire at The Ageas Bowl, with the fixture scheduled to start at 11am.
Hopes of silverware for the Club this season now rest with the Royal London Cup, after two disappointing campaigns in both the LV= Insurance County Championship and Vitality Blast.
The 50-over tournament returns to the domestic calendar this season having been cancelled last year due to the restricted season brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Squad:
McGrath’s View:
Eagles Head Coach Anthony McGrath is delighted to see the return of 50-over cricket.
He said: “It’s a competition that I’ve always been delighted to be involved with and I know the players all enjoy it.
“It’s being played alongside The Hundred which means a number of players will be away from their sides but that offers other players the opportunity to come in and show what they can do.
“We are all disappointed that we now won’t be able to challenge for the County Championship title this year and equally, the T20 tournament proved hugely frustrating, so the 50-over competition offers us an opportunity to win a major trophy this year.
“The first challenge is of course to make the next stage but we want to finish top of our group because that would take us into the semi-final and a guaranteed home tie.
“So, we will be taking it very seriously and putting out our best available team.”
The Opposition:
Hampshire have several key players involved in cricket’s latest tournament and will be without D’Arcy Short, Mason Crane, Chris Wood, Liam Dawson and James Vince.
However, their involvement elsewhere does offer some young up-and-coming hopefuls their opportunity in the Royal London Cup with Hampshire expected to include highly promising quartet, all-rounder Scott Currie and batters Tom Prest, Fletcha Middleton and Tony Albert.
The two sides have met on 70 occasions in List A cricket with Essex successful in 32 matches, Hampshire triumphant in 35 whilst 3 matches ended as no results.
How to Watch:
There will be a Live Stream service from The Ageas Bowl which will be broadcasting ahead of play from 11am via the Essex Cricket Matchzone. The stream will also be available via the Hampshire Cricket YouTube Channel.
Access via the Essex Cricket Matchzone is available here.
