Durham v Essex Eagles
Royal London Cup
Emirates Riverside
Sunday 08 August
11am start
The top two in Group A are set to lock horns when Essex Eagles head north to engage Durham at Emirates Riverside in the Royal London Cup on Sunday.
The Eagles have named a 14-man squad for this fixture, which includes 16-year-old Luc Benkenstein, son of former South African International Dale, who also played for Durham before moving onto a coaching role at Hampshire.
Luc is an all-rounder who bowls leg-spin and earlier this week, played for the Essex Cricket Board Under 18 side against an Under 25 Club Cricket Conference Representative team.
However, Michael Pepper is isolating after testing positive for COVID-19 and therefore unavailable for selection.
Squad:
Aron Nijjar’s View:
The Eagles have their eyes firmly set on reaching the knockout stage of the Royal London Cup after the win at Bristol over Gloucestershire earned them their fourth win in five matches.
The top side in each of the two groups will be guaranteed a home tie in the Semi-Finals, which takes place just two days before the Final is staged at Trent Bridge on Thursday 19th August.
The teams finishing in second will have a home Quarter-Final tie on Saturday 14th August against the third-placed team from the opposite group.
Tom Westley has been in scintillating form in the competition and he posted his fourth half-century in five innings against Gloucestershire. He had reached 71 when he was run out but ninth-wicket pair Aron Nijjar and Shane Snater saw the Eagles complete an exciting victory from the final delivery of the match.
Nijjar acknowledged his skipper’s impressive form with the bat in the 50-over format and said: “He’s batted beautifully and did so again on Tuesday in the win over Gloucestershire.
“It was a tricky pitch to bat on, offering some seam movement and spin but his innings was exceptional in that situation and when he was out, they looked to be on top.”
The departure of the Eagles skipper left them requiring 52 runs from 6.4 overs with just 2 wickets intact but Nijjar and Snater saw them through with both adopting a responsible and confident approach.
Nijjar added: “I think Shane deserves a lot of credit, the way he played was very positive.
“We do bat deep as it showed with Shane coming in at number 10 and batting as well as he did. We are confident that we have enough quality on the team throughout the order to chase down any total.
“Throughout the game, it wasn’t easy to score boundaries but although the run-rate was going up, I knew that a couple of lusty blows would get us back in the game.
“So it was a matter of waiting for the right ball to come along and thankfully, I chose right and help us to get over the line.”
The Opposition:
Durham have a number of players unavailable for the fixture and will make their final selection from a 14-man squad missing Mark Wood, Brydon Carse, Matty Potts and Ben Raine who are involved in The Hundred plus Ben Stokes who is currently taking a break away from all cricket.
Durham Squad:
Scott Borthwick (c), Alex Lees, Graham Clark, Cameron Bancroft, David Bedingham, Sean Dickson, Ned Eckersley, Chris Rushworth, Matt Salisbury, Liam Trevaskis, Luke Doneathy, Paul van Meekeren, Jack Campbell, Harry Crawshaw.
The Eagles have met the Durham on 18 previous occasions in List A cricket and have prevailed in 10 of those encounters and lost 6. 2 matches, those in 1995 and 1998, have ended in ties.
How to Watch:
There will be a Live Stream service from Emirates Riverside, courtesy of our hosts. This will be available via the Essex Cricket Matchzone from 11am.
Access via the Essex Cricket Matchzone is available here.
