Lancashire and Essex are all set to lock horns in the third quarterfinal of the English T20 Blast on Friday. Both sides made a safe passage into the knockout rounds, as Lancashire finished second in the North Group. Dane Vilas and Co. concluded the league stage with eight wins and four losses, ending just below table-toppers Warwickshire.
On the other hand, Essex finished third in the South Group with 19 points. Essex claimed nine victories and ended up just two points behind leaders Surrey. Essex pulled back things in the second half of the tournament, winning six of their last seven encounters. They completely outplayed Glamorgan in the last league stage encounter, handing them a 69-run defeat. The previous six Essex victories have all come by defending totals, as the batters have done a tremendous job in the first innings.
Lancashire have not been in the best form leading up to the knockout rounds. They have claimed just one win from their last four games, which came in the final league outing against Warwickshire.
Lancashire have been handed a triple blow ahead of their clash against Essex. The trio of Philip Salt, Matthew Parkinson and Richard Gleeson will all miss this fixture because of International duty. The aforementioned trio have been selected in the England squad for the T20I series against India. Middle-order batter Tim David has been dismissed for single-digit scores in the last two games, and he will look to get straight back in form.
The balance is clearly in Essex’s favour given their recent results. Moreover, Lancashire have lost three key players for this crunch encounter.
Match Details:
Match: Lancashire vs Essex, Quarterfinal 3
Venue: Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester
Date & Time: July 8, 11 PM IST
Live Streaming: FanCode and ECB website.
Pitch Report: The pitch should be suitable for batting conditions. There could be plenty of runs scored in this encounter. The last fixture at the venue saw over 330 runs being scored in just about 40 overs. The spinners did enjoy a considerable amount of success last time around.
Head-To-Head:
Matches Played: 2
Essex Won: 2
Lancashire: 0
Probable Playing XI:
Essex: Adam Rossington (Wk), Robin Das, Michael-Kyle Pepper, Daniel Lawrence, Paul Walter, Tom Westley, Daniel Sams, Simon Harmer (C), Aaron Beard, Ben Allison, Samuel Cook
Lancashire: Keaton Jennings, Rob Jones, Steven Croft, Dane Vilas (C), Tim David, Luke Wells, Danny Lamb, Luke Wood, Tom Hartley, Joshua Boyden, Tom Bailey
CREX XI Suggestion:
Wicket-Keeper: Dane Vilas, Adam Rossington
Batters: Paul Walter, Tom Westley, Steven Croft, Tim David
All-Rounders: Daniel Sams, Simon Harmer
Bowlers: Luke Wood, Tom Hartley, Samuel James Cook
Captain: Dane Vilas
Vice-Captain: Simon Harmer