Lancashire v Essex Eagles
Royal London Cup
Sedbergh School, Cumbria
Tuesday 02 August
11am start
Essex Eagles will get their Royal London Cup campaign underway tomorrow as they face Lancashire at the scenic grounds of Sedbergh School.
The Eagles will be looking to better their strong showing last year when they reached the Semi-Finals.
This year’s Royal London Cup will also give Eagles fans the opportunity to see a youthful Essex team in action with a number of young players making their mark last season.
Squad:
The Eagles welcome new overseas signing Grant Roelofsen to the playing squad with the talented South African batter expected to add some experience to the batting line-up. Familiar faces from last year’s campaign, Josh Rymell, Feroze Khushi, Luc Benkenstein and Will Buttleman are also included in the squad.
Alastair Cook and Ben Allison are continuing their respective injury recoveries while Sam Cook, Dan Lawrence, Adam Rossington, Matt Critchley and Michael Pepper are unavailable due to the Hundred.
Read more about the injuries to Alastair Cook and Ben Allison here.
The Opposition:
Lancashire will have the bit between their teeth after a disappointing exit at the hands of a Simon Harmer-inspired Essex last year.
Lancashire flew out of the gates in last year’s competition, winning 3 of their opening 4 games and, alongside Essex, looked early favourites to progress to the knockout stages.
However, a loss of form and an over of immense hitting from Simon Harmer relegated them to 4th in the table as they failed to win any of their last 4 matches.
Danny Lamb enjoyed an excellent season with bat and ball last season, topping the batting averages with 147 runs at an average of 49 and finishing joint-leading wicket-taker with alongside Tom Bailey with 10 wickets.
In absence of the coaching duo of Glen Chapple and Carl Crowe, Graham Onions and Karl Krikken will be in charge of the First XI Squad. The squad will also be without Jos Buttler, Richard Gleeson, Tom Hartley, Liam Livingstone, Matt Parkinson, Phil Salt and Luke Wood who are all unavailable because of Hundred commitments and Dane Vilas who is yet to recover from a finger injury.
Lancashire have recently announced Indian all-rounder Washington Sundar as their overseas player for the campaign.
Lancashire squad: Keaton Jennings (c), George Balderson, George Bell, Jack Blatherwick, Josh Bohannon, Steven Croft, Liam Hurt, Rob Jones, Danny Lamb, George Lavelle (wk), Jack Morley, Washington Sundar, Luke Wells, Will Williams.
The Coach’s Preview
Last time out:
The two sides last met in the Royal London Cup in Manchester when a crunch match at the end of the group stages ended in a tie.
Going into the final game of the group stages, Lancashire needed a win to have any chance of progressing and they looked well set after posting 250-6 and reducing Essex to 227-8 with 10 balls remaining.
That Lancashire made it to 250 was largely down to Steven Croft, who made a brilliant 93 and was well supported by young keeper George Lavelle, who hit 52. Ryan ten Doeschate continued his good form with the ball and picked up a further 2 wickets, whilst there were also wickets for Aron Nijjar, Simon Harmer and Ben Allison.
In response, Alastair Cook (110) struck a peerless century at the top of the order, but wickets fell around him and it wasn’t until he was joined by ten Doeschate (45) that Essex mounted a recovery.
However, when both Cook and ten Doeschate fell, Wheater and Nijjar quickly followed leaving Essex with a seemingly impossible task of scoring 24 from the final 10 balls with just 2 wickets in hand.
It looked even more out of reach when Harmer took strike with 4 balls remaining and 21 runs still required. He then proceeded to strike the hero of earlier in the day, Croft, for 3 successive sixes and when he hit a 2 from the final ball, a dramatic tie was sealed.
How To Watch:
A free live stream of the game will be provided on The Essex Cricket Matchzone, which includes player stats, scorecards and clips throughout the game.
The broadcast can be accessed via the Essex Cricket Matchzone here.
Tickets
The Eagles play their first Royal London Cup fixture at The Cloud County Ground o Friday 05 August against Derbyshire. Tickets for this fixture and the three following home fixtures are available online via the Essex Cricket Ticketing Site. Ticket prices are from £15 for Adults, £10 for Students and Young Adults and £5 for Juniors. Essex County Cricket Club Members are able to attend home Royal London Cup matches free of charge.
