Leicestershire Foxes v Essex
Metro Bank One Day Cup
Kibworth Cricket Club, Kibworth
Tuesday 15 August 2023 | 11:00am start
Having already played Lancashire at Sedbergh School in the group stage of this year’s One Day Cup, Essex will face another dose of outground cricket as they travel to Kibworth Cricket Club to take on Leicestershire Foxes.
The surroundings, ten miles south-east of Leicester city centre, will be unfamiliar not just for the Eagles, but for the hosts too, with this being the very first time the Leicestershire first XI have played a game in Kibworth.
Essex will hope they can be the ones to seize the initiative in the new conditions in order to secure their second victory in three One Day Cup matches.
Despite earning a nail-biting win over Middlesex on Friday thanks to the efforts of 18-year-old Charlie Allison, the Eagles were unable to go back-to-back as Yorkshire Vikings left Chelmsford with the spoils on Sunday.
Squad:
Head Coach Anthony McGrath has named a 13-man squad for the trip to Kibworth, with Michael Pepper, who has returned to London Spirit ahead of their game on Tuesday evening, omitted.
That is the only change from the 14-man group that was named to take on Yorkshire, with Jamie Porter still resting a groin niggle.
The Opposition:
Leicestershire Foxes squad: Lewis Hill (c), Colin Ackermann, Sol Budinger, Sam Evans, Peter Handscomb (wk), Josh Hull, Louis Kimber, Wiaan Mulder, Rishi Patel, Uttam Ramji, Tom Scriven, Roman Walker, Chris Wright.
Leicestershire have enjoyed a positive start to Group A of the One Day Cup, currently sitting atop the table with four wins from their five matches.
Their only defeat came at the hands of local rivals Notts Outlaws, in between seeing off Surrey, Kent Spitfires, Lancashire, and Hampshire.
In the third of those victories, at Old Trafford, the Foxes posted their highest-ever List A total of 411/6, which also stands as the fourth-highest total seen in this year’s tournament.
They remain in the hunt for promotion from Division Two of the LV= County Championship too, sitting fifth on 111 points, just 23 behind Worcestershire in second, whom they possess a game in hand on too.
However, the exception to their positive campaign so far was a dismal showing in the Vitality Blast, where they won only two games of 14 to finish bottom of the North Group, six points below Yorkshire Vikings.
Key Battle – Tom Westley v Josh Hull:
Last Time We Met:
A relatively sizeable trip into the past is required to find the last time the Eagles met the Foxes in List A cricket, with no fixture having taken place between the sides for almost a decade.
The last meeting in 50-over cricket was in 2014 at Chelmsford, when the visitors, thanks to Scott Styris’s unbeaten 44, edged a low scoring contest by 34 runs in spite of Graham Napier’s 5/43.
In actual fact, the match-up is rare, with Tuesday’s match set to be only the eighth time the two sides have played one another in the List A format since the turn of the millennium.
Recent history is more kind to Essex on the whole, however; they have triumphed on three of those seven occasions, with Leicestershire winning two, while one was tied, and one was washed out.
Metro Bank One Day Cup Remaining Fixtures:
Tickets:
General admission tickets are available from the Leicestershire website until 5pm on Monday 14th for anyone planning to make the trip to the East Midlands, priced at £18 for adults, £15 for concessions (aged 16-22 and 60+), and £5 for under-16s.
Following the 5pm deadline, Leicestershire are advising that tickets will be on sale on the ground’s Fleckney Road gate at the same price with only card payment accepted, but they are encouraging spectators to buy in advance.
Tickets can be purchased from the link below:
How To Watch:
If you are unable to make the trip to Kibworth in person, the match will be streamed live by hosts Leicestershire and available to watch via the Essex Cricket Matchzone.
Live updates will also be provided on the Club’s own social media channels, while highlights will be available after the match via the Essex Cricket website and social channels too.
