Nottinghamshire v Essex
Vitality County Championship
Trent Bridge, Nottingham
Friday 05 – Monday 08 April | 11:00am start
Following the end of a long winter, the starting gun on the 2024 season is finally fired tomorrow as Essex journey to Trent Bridge to face Nottinghamshire.
Having fallen agonisingly short of dethroning champions Surrey last time out, motivation amongst the Eagles to go one step further will be high heading into the new campaign.
There was significant movement in the Essex camp during the off-season, with Alastair Cook and Dan Lawrence leaving, though new faces Dean Elgar and Jordan Cox are ready to step into their shoes.
A trip to Trent Bridge will be an early opportunity for Anthony McGrath’s men to lay down a marker for the season ahead.
Squad
With a fully fit squad to choose from, Head Coach McGrath has named a 14-player squad for the trip to Nottingham, with new signings Elgar and Cox included in a competitive Eagles group for the first time.
The Inside Line: Anthony McGrath
The Opposition
Nottinghamshire finished sixth last season in what was their first campaign back in Division One for four years, having achieved promotion from the second tier in 2022.
They were somewhat inconsistent last season, failing to string together two consecutive wins but also never losing more than two back-to-back games either.
Coached by former England boss Peter Moores, and newly captained by Haseeb Hameed, the Green and Golds have made three key signings in their efforts to kick on in 2024.
Batter Jack Haynes, who is an especially eye-catching addition, and bowlers Josh Tongue and Dillon Pennington all made the move from Worcestershire in the winter.
Haynes is complemented in Notts’ top order by Hameed and Joe Clarke, with the latter having struck more than 1,000 runs in a season for the first time in his career last time out.
Meanwhile, Tongue and Pennington join a seam battery that already features Brett Hutton, the leading red-ball wicket-taker in the country in 2023 with 62 victims, and South African import Dane Paterson.
Nottinghamshire squad: Haseeb Hameed (c), Joe Clarke, Ben Duckett, Luke Fletcher, Calvin Harrison, Jack Haynes, Brett Hutton, Lyndon James, Matt Montgomery, Tom Moores (wk), Dane Paterson, Dillon Pennington, Toby Pettman, Ben Slater
Last Time We Met
A highly-competitive draw was played out the last time Essex travelled to Trent Bridge for a red-ball match, in May last year.
Having been inserted after losing the toss, the Eagles amassed 298 in their first innings, as Alastair Cook top-scored with 72 and Tom Westley added 66.
The hosts raced into a first-innings lead of 146 thanks to Matthew Montgomery’s 177 as well as fifties from Ben Slater and Joe Clarke, despite three wickets apiece for Sam Cook and Matt Critchley.
Cook and Westley, who were both dismissed in the 90s – the former in particular falling an agonising one run short of a first Trent Bridge ton – battled again in the second dig to halt Notts’ momentum.
By the time the Eagles declared their second innings on 362-8, with a lead of 216, the draw was the likely outcome, and the handshakes came just two hours later, with the hosts on 97-4.
Division One Previews
Click here for Part 1 of a team-by-team preview of each of this year’s Division One contenders, and click here for Part 2.
How To Watch
If you are not travelling to the East Midlands in person, the game will be streamed live on the Trent Bridge Live YouTube channel and available to watch via the Essex Cricket Matchzone.
Daily highlights will be available after each day’s play via the Club website, while live updates will be provided on the Club’s social media channels.
Tickets
A general admission ticket to any of the four days’ play at Trent Bridge entitles you to sit in any available and vacant seat anywhere in the ground, with the exception of Members’ areas.
Essex Members who are making the journey to Trent Bridge will need to buy a ticket, but once in the ground, will be able to join their Nottinghamshire counterparts in the Members-only seats in front of the Pavilion.
Tickets, which are priced at £23 for adults, £18 for seniors and for those aged between 16-21, and £6 for under-16s, can be purchased by visiting the link below:
The Eagles Have Landed: The 2024 Vitality Blast at The Cloud County Ground
Fresh from a Finals Day appearance last summer, Essex return to shortest-format action in Chelmsford from Sunday 02 June.
With over 20,000 tickets sold and two Friday night fixtures already packed out, demand is running high, so there’s no time to waste to secure the best seats as the Eagles aim to go one better in 2024.
Sunday 02 June, 4:00pm: Essex v Middlesex – buy here
Friday 07 June, 7:00pm: Essex v Glamorgan – buy here (LAST FEW TICKETS)
Friday 14 June, 7:00pm: Essex v Sussex Sharks – SOLD OUT
Thursday 20 June, 7:00pm: Essex v Hampshire Hawks – buy here
Friday 05 July, 7:00pm: Essex v Somerset – SOLD OUT
Thursday 11 July, 7:00pm: Essex v Kent Spitfires – buy here
Sunday 14 July, 2:30pm: Essex v Surrey – buy here
