Glamorgan v Essex Eagles | Gloucestershire v Essex Eagles
Vitality Blast
Sophia Gardens | Seat Unique Stadium
Thursday 02 June, 7:05pm | Friday 03 June, 6:30pm
After a thumping victory over Hampshire Hawks in the Eagles first home fixture of the Vitality Blast campaign, the team are back on the road for consecutive away games against Glamorgan and Gloucestershire respectively.
Tuesday’s win over Hampshire leaves Essex in fourth place in the South Group and nicely poised to move further up the table if they can produce similar performances.
Squad:
The Eagles have named an unchanged squad which will travel for both games.
The Opposition: Glamorgan
After a confident showing against Sussex Sharks in their opening Vitality Blast fixture where they won by 7 wickets in the 19th over, Glamorgan have been defeated twice in succession since.
At Radlett, a high-flying Middlesex side chased down 169 in 19 overs with four wickets to spare and Surrey squeaked home from the second to last ball at The Oval.
With the bat, new recruit Sam Northeast has led the way in the Blast, scoring 131 runs at 65.50. While with the ball the evergreen Michael Hogan has already picked up 9 wickets at just 8.77 a-piece, including 5/18 last time out against Surrey.
Head to Head:
Last time out:
Last time the Eagles faced Glamorgan in T20 cricket was back in July of last year, when Simon Harmer’s men thumped Glamorgan at Chelmsford.
Glamorgan skipper Chris Cooke won the toss and elected to bat, a decision he would be regretting a few later, with only four of the visitor’s players reaching double figures.
Jack Plom made the breakthrough, trapping Kiran Carlson leg before with the score on 14-1, and from then on it was a bit of an onslaught. Colin Ingram was bowled for 1 by Dan Lawrence, and the visitors then fell to 40-3 just before the end of the powerplay with Lloyd falling victim to an extraordinary direct hit from Plom.
They recovered to 77-3, but lost their remaining 7 wickets for just 27 runs. Harmer had Cooke caught by Aron Nijjar for 25, Billy Root was another to fall leg before to Plom and then Douthwaite edged behind off Nijjar for 13.
It was then down to Sam Cook and Harmer again to see things off, taking the final 4 wickets in 7 balls between them.
The Eagles batters knocked off the 105 needed for victory in a straightforward manner.
Will Buttleman went for 6 and with his side 13-1, but a 70-run second-wicket partnership between Lawrence and Adam Wheater in 8.5 overs did the damage.
By the time Wheater went for 39 after a smart stumping from Cooke, just 22 runs were required with more than half the innings left, and Lawrence and Michael Pepper saw the Eagles home with relative ease.
The Opposition: Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire have had a mixed start to their Vitality Blast campaign, winning one whilst losing two of their opening three games.
Their T20 season got underway against Middlesex at Radlett, and the hosts claimed victory by 30 runs after a destructive 87 in just 37 balls from opener Steve Eskinazi.
That was followed up with a 40-run victory against one of the competition’s favourites, Sussex Sharks. James Bracey played nicely for his 70, and he was supported well by Ryan Higgins and Glenn Phillips with scores of 39 and 27 with Gloucestershire scoring 193-7.
David Payne was in great form with the ball, ending with match figures of 3/22 from his 4 overs, with no Sussex batter really troubling the Gloucestershire bowling unit.
Their third game of the season was a defeat to Surrey at Kia Oval. Having bowled the hosts out for 129 in just 15 overs, it seemed Jack Taylor’s side were heading for a second successive victory.
Sam Curran however had other ideas and he accounted for 4 of the Gloucestershire wickets for just 14 runs from his 3 overs.
It’ll be one that Friday’s opposition will want to forget and move on from sharpish.
Head to Head:
Last time out:
Due to a mixture of COVID-19 and bad weather, the Eagles haven’t faced Gloucestershire in T20 cricket since 2019.
Last time out though, an unbeaten 86 from Tom Westley, as well as half-centuries from Cameron Delport and Dan Lawrence, helped the Eagles to a 25-run victory.
Harmy won the toss and elected to bat first. Westley and Delport opened the batting, and the pair put on an impressive opening-wicket partnership of 82 in 8.1 overs.
Both cleared the ropes on several occasions, with the powerful Delport taking the lead before trying one too many maximums and being caught in the deep for 51.
Wheater was the new man in but after just 3 balls, he was bowled by Benny Howell to make the score 94-2 after 10.2 overs.
That brought Lawrence to the middle, and he and Westley produced one of the partnerships of the year for the Eagles, scoring 105 in 8.4 overs to move the score to 199-3 after 19.
Lawrence eventually fell for a 26-ball 56, but it was Westley who claimed the plaudits, with his unbeaten 86 helping set a daunting target of 207 for victory.
Miles Hammond was the first to go for the hosts, being caught on the boundary for 19 after trying to sweep Adam Zampa for six which made the score 22-1 after 3 overs.
Michael Klinger departed shortly after for 11 when edging behind off Snater, and the wicket of James Bracey meant the hosts were 43-3 with 6.5 overs gone.
That brought Ryan Higgins to the crease, and he played with expert precision and confidence to make an unbeaten 77 off 43 balls. He was aided by Jack Taylor, and the pair scored at more than 10 an over before the latter eventually fell victim to Zampa with 161 on the board with 17.5 gone
Despite Higgins’ best efforts, it was too much for the hosts to chase, with Gloucestershire ending their innings with a score of 181-5.
How to Watch:
Thursday evening’s game against Glamorgan is being broadcast live on Sky Sports Cricket from 7pm, with the first ball being bowled at five minutes past seven. Due to the game being broadcast on Sky, there will not be a live stream service available online.
On Friday, our hosts at Gloucestershire will provide a live stream that will be available via the Essex Cricket Matchzone, here.
Soar with the Eagles:
After a bumper opening T20 fixture at Chelmsford where a packed crowd saw the Eagles thump Hampshire Hawks, tickets are selling fast for next Tuesday’s fixture against Kent Spitfires.
To watch Battle of the Bridge P.2, purchase tickets via the button below.
