Worcestershire Rapids v Essex Eagles | Hampshire v Essex Eagles
Royal London Cup
New Road, Worcester | The Ageas Bowl, Southampton
Friday 19 August | Sunday 21 August
11am starts
Wednesday’s win against Yorkshire put Essex well in contention for qualification from Group B of the Royal London Cup with away fixtures at Worcestershire and Hampshire to come.
Despite fielding an inexperienced side due to call-ups to the Hundred and an increasing number of injuries, the Eagles have performed remarkably well to overcome more experienced opposition teams to keep their trophy hopes alive.
The remaining two fixtures come in the space of three days and, although the Eagles occupy third place in the table, with Yorkshire having a game in hand they will need to maintain their winning streak.
Squad:
The Eagles welcome Jamie Porter and Ben Allison back into a 14-player squad for both games, however, Aaron Beard has not yet fully recovered from illness.
The Opposition: Worcestershire Rapids
After a strong start, the Rapids faded away in last year’s competition and ended in 5th position in Group 1 after winning three of their eight games.
Sadly for them, their 2022 Royal London Cup campaign has resembled the second half of 2021 rather than the first and after losing their opening five fixtures their chances of qualification are long gone.
Despite Worcestershire not putting a win on the board in their opening five games, Jake Libby, Ed Barnard and new signing Kashif Ali have all had impressive seasons with bat in hand, scoring over 200 runs each.
The story is similar with the ball, with all of their mainline bowlers going at under 6 runs per over. However, Worcestershire have struggled to piece together enough team performances to put together a string of wins in the competition.
However, on Wednesday they completed their first victory of this season’s Royal London Cup, with a 6-wicket win over Northamptonshire.
Kashif Ali has joined Josh Baker and Charlie Morris on the sidelines through injury, while last year’s leading run-scorer Jack Haynes is also absent due to his participation in the Hundred, along with Pat Brown, Brett D’Oliveira and Mitchell Stanley.
Last time out: Worcestershire Rapids
The two sides last met in the group stages of last year’s competition when Worcestershire inflicted a rare home loss on the Eagles.
Batting first, Rapids openers Jack Haynes and Brett D’Oliveira had a day to remember as they racked up a 243-run opening stand, scoring 153 and 123 respectively.
Even a middle-order collapse couldn’t stop Worcestershire from ending up on 338 from their 50 overs. Simon Harmer and Ben Allison picked up a couple of wickets each, but other than that there was little joy for the Essex bowlers.
Chasing a large target, Essex suffered an early flurry of wickets and despite a counter-attacking 77 from Adam Wheater, were bowled out for 156.
The Opposition: Hampshire
Hampshire have already had a season to remember in all formats, winning the Vitality Blast, sitting in second place in Division One of the LV= Insurance County Championship and are currently top of Group B in the Royal London Cup having won all five of their games.
Despite having a long list of absentees, a number of Hampshire’s young players have had campaign’s to remember.
Hampshire’s bowling unit has been particularly successful, with no team having scored more than 250 against them and on three occasions opposition sides haven’t made it to 200.
Jack Campbell, Scott Currie and John Turner only have 31 List A appearances between them, however, they already have an evenly spread 33 wickets between them in the 2022 Royal London Cup. The trio have caused a majority of the damage, while the next highest wicket-taker is Felix Organ with five wickets.
It’s a similar situation with the bat as talented 19 and 20-year-olds Tom Prest and Tony Albert have each had impressive seasons. Prest has scored 265 runs at 53, while Albert has 218 runs at 72.66. They’ll be hoping for more from two of the only experienced heads in Ben Brown and Aneurin Donald, neither of whom average more than 15 in the campaign.
Given Hampshire’s white-ball success, it’s unsurprising that they have been hit by Hundred call-ups. Talisman James Vince is joined by Mason Crane, Liam Dawson, Brad Wheal, Chris Wood, James Fuller and Joe Weatherley in the competition.
Last time out: Hampshire
Essex and Hampshire last played in List A cricket in the opening round of last year’s Royal London Cup, when Essex clinched a tight victory to begin their great start to the campaign.
After being set 274 for victory, Essex looked in a spot of bother when they slipped to 221-7. However, Simon Harmer and Aron Nijjar combined for a 54-run partnership to nervelessly see Essex over the line with three wickets in the bank.
Harmer also played a key role with the ball, taking 3/42 along with Shane Snater, who picked up 3/62 including the key wickets of Nick Gubbins (62) and Lewis McManus (50).
Essex’s chase got off to a shaky start, losing Will Buttleman and Alastair Cook within the first two overs. However, Tom Westley scored 69 to get the Eagles back on track and was well supported by Michael Pepper (34) and Paul Walter (35) before Harmer (32*) and Nijjar (27*) combined to get Essex off to winning ways.
How To Watch:
A free live stream of both fixtures will be available courtesy of our hosts. You will be able to access them through The Essex Cricket Matchzone, which includes player stats, scorecards and clips throughout the game.
Keep up to speed with proceedings with the Essex Cricket Matchzone here.
