Kent v Essex Match Preview + Countdown to the Southend Festival
Jul 28 2010
Kent v Essex Match Preview + Countdown to the Southend Festival
Before the Essex Auto Group Southend Cricket Festival starts Essex travel to Canterbury for a critical LV= County Championship game versus Kent.
Essex Auto Group Southend Cricket Festival Garon Park, Southend-on-sea
Essex v Warwickshire Wednesday 4th Saturday 7th August, 11am starts LV= County Championship Division I
Essex Eagles v Northants Steelbacks Sunday 8th August, 1:45pm start Clydesdale Bank 40
Charity Twenty20 game Monday 9th August, 3:30pm start. Ronnie Irani All-Stars Essex XI V Steve Tilson All-Stars XI
Thirty-six hours after securing their place in the 2010 Friends Provident t20 Finals Day with a stunning victory over Lancashire, Essex are back in action, but this time in the longer format of the game.
They travel to Canterbury to face Kent in the LV=County Championship starting on Thursday [29th July] at 11.00am and Paul Grayson (First XI Head Coach) admits that there is little time for his players to relax and celebrate their third appearance in Finals Day.
“The boys won’t be celebrating too hard because we have got a lot of tough cricket ahead starting with Kent on Thursday morning. The matches keep coming thick and fast, they will be tough opponents and although they are down at the bottom, they are still a decent side”.
“They have played a game less than ourselves and so they will be looking to make up ground on us. We had a good game against them when we met at Chelmsford earlier in the season, so its going to be a tough four days because there wasnt much between the two sides”.
“After that, we have got Warwickshire to play at Southend and that means we have got two massive championship matches coming up”.
“But I think that our four-day cricket has been excellent in the last month or six weeks. We beat Notts who are second in the table and drew with leaders Yorkshire last week in a closely-fought affair after an excellent performance and we need to keep that good run of form going”.
“Essex defer naming their squad until later today but Australian Bryce McGain is expected to make his debut for the county. The 38 year-old leg-spinner has been signed as the overseas replacement for Danish Kaneria and will be staying with the county until the end of the season”.
“It has not proved easy to replace Danish, Paul Grayson admitted. With the current weather and the upcoming fixtures at grounds like Southend and Colchester we feel Bryce will be the ideal addition as a spin bowler”.
“He had a good season last year with Victoria and we can now look forward to the rest of the season having received good feedback from various sources regarding the pedigree of Bryce. He is certainly the best available bowler and able to play in all formats of the game”.
Kent were promoted along with Essex last season and championship clashes between the two adversaries date back to 1898. Essex have won 45 of the 175 fixtures with their opponents taking the honours on 62 occasions.
Essex Squad:
James Foster (Captain & Wicket-Keeper)
Mark Pettini
Jaik Mickleburgh
Ravi Bopara
Matt Walker
Tom Westley
Tim Phillips
Grant Flower
David Masters
Bryce McGain
Chris Wright
Maurice Chambers
Andy Carter
ENDS
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