Nottinghamshire v Essex
LV= Insurance County Championship
Trent Bridge
Thursday 06 – Sunday 09 May
11am start
Essex continue their run of away fixtures with a visit to Trent Bridge for an LV=Insurance County Championship match with Nottinghamshire starting on Thursday.
It is the team’s third successive match on the road and they face a side who secured their first red-ball win since 2018 when they swept aside Derbyshire last week.
Essex meanwhile drew their contest at New Road with Worcestershire on a wicket that offered little encouragement for bowlers.
After four rounds of matches, only 5 points separate five of the six teams in Group One. Leaders Warwickshire, who are the only side in the section to have won more than one match, have 54 points and that is 5 more than fifth-placed Essex. At the foot of the table, Durham have 40 points.
Squad:
Hear from McGrath:
Nottinghamshire recorded their first victory in 31 red-ball matches when they overcame Derbyshire last week, but Anthony McGrath is all too aware of their threat.
“Their results have not been great over the last year or two but that win last week would have given them great encouragement,” he said.
“They are a very dangerous team with a number of quality players and we’ll need to be at our best if we want to get a positive result.”
And he is also keen to point out the demanding workload on the Essex squad so far.
“Every game this year has gone to the last day and apart from the Durham game, each one has gone to the last session.
“So it’s been a real grind, especially for the bowlers who effectively bowled for two full days in both of the Worcestershire games whilst the Warwickshire game went down to the penultimate over.
“We always knew that with nine back-to-back Championship fixtures, it would be tough and with three successive away games, it’s more challenging with all the travel involved.
“But you’ve got to get on with it and frankly, we are happy to be playing with all that has happened over the last 12 months or so.”
Regarding the few points that separate the six teams in Group One, he admits that the extra points introduced for the draw this season (increased to 8 from 5) has had an effect.
“It’s still early days and there is still a lot of cricket to be played but I think in our Group, there have been a lot more draws with wins harder to come by. It could be closely fought all the way through before the top two are decided.
“We couldn’t have done more against Worcestershire either home or away and we tried to force the games all the way through, we lost a close one against Warwickshire and won against Durham so, yes, it’s been very tight.
“The guys have given everything, we’ve been pushing for wins in all the games which is a good sign and I’m confident if we can keep that level of fighting spirit and performance, we’ll soon get on a roll.”
Injury/Absentees News:
Essex have named a 13-man squad with Ben Allison and Jamie Porter added to the team that played against Worcestershire.
Opposition:
The win over Derbyshire gave Nottinghamshire their first red-ball success since June 2018, a sequence of 31 first-class matches.
England’s Stuart Broad leads a group of seamers that includes Luke Fletcher who claimed 5 for 28 in the first innings against Derbyshire, whilst Dane Paterson and Broad claimed 11 wickets between them.
Notts Coach Peter Moores praised his players and coaching staff after the game, saying: “There’s a lot of hard work being put into the way we go about our red-ball cricket which has been taking place over a long period of time, so this is a great moment for us all and something for us to continue to build on.
“We are going to have to keep working hard, getting better and being able to play tough cricket against good teams.
“We have a great game coming up against Essex, the Champions. That’ll be a really good test to see if we can back up what we have done.”
One to Watch:
In Stuart Broad, Nottinghamshire boast one of England’s finest new-ball bowlers.
On Broad, Notts Coach Peter Moores said: “Like most of the great players, he seems to get better. He seems to be bowling quicker now than he has ever bowled as well.
“There’s a lot of cricket left in Stuart and if I were an England selector, I would be very pleased with what I was seeing.”
Head-to-Head:
The two teams last met in 2019 at Trent Bridge where Essex inflicted a heavy defeat on their hosts to win by an innings and 123 runs.
The home side scored 213 and 183 either side of a run-fest from the team destined to win the title who totalled 519-9 declared. Nick Browne top-scored with 163, Ravi Bopara contributed 135 whilst Dan Lawrence scored 64.
Pacemen Jamie Porter, Peter Siddle and Aaron Beard each took three wickets in Notts’ first trip to the crease and then Harmer collected four wickets second time around with Porter and Beard sharing another four wickets.
In the 136 Championship clashes between the teams so far, Essex have won 37, there have been 66 draws whilst Notts have secured victory on 33 occasions.
Potential Milestones:
Adam Wheater requires 7 runs to reach 3,000 first-class runs for Essex.
Jamie Porter requires 8 more wickets to record 350 first-class wickets for Essex.
How To Watch:
Our Live Stream service will be available across all four days of this game from 11am, which also includes player stats, scorecards and clips throughout the day. Access via the Essex Cricket Matchzone is available here.
