ABOUT THE MATCH
The group stage is done and dusted and the Vitality T20 Blast 2019 now moves into this knockout phase with Lancashire Lightning taking on the Essex Eagles in the first quarter-final. The match is scheduled to be played on September 4 at the Riverside Ground in Chester-le-Street.
Both the teams are coming off a win in their respective last matches played last week. While Lancashire registered a convincing five-wicket victory over Leicestershire Foxes at the Old Trafford in Manchester, Essex defeated Kent Spitfires by 10 runs at the County Ground in Chelmsford.
Lancashire, after restricting Leicestershire to 142/9 in their 20 overs, started off well with the bat and eventually chased their target with eight balls to spare. Essex posted 189/6 on the board after opting to bat first and then picked wickets at regular intervals to bowl Kent out for 179.
TOSS PREDICTION
The venue has hosted six T20 matches so far this season and the toss-winning team has elected to bowl first here on five occasions, including the previous three matches. Since the pitch is unlikely to change after the first period of play, the team that wins the toss will probably continue the trend of bowling first.
PITCH AND CONDITION
Some light rain has been forecast for Wednesday evening. So there might be a loss of a few overs and the DLS method might come into the equation. However, it shouldn’t be that heavy so as to cause a washout. A cold evening is expected with temperatures around 10-12 degrees Celsius.
The Riverside Ground has produced moderate to low totals in this year’s Vitality T20 Blast and 150+ has been scored only twice here – in the most recent game last Tuesday between Durham and Warwickshire. This shows that the pitch has had something in it for both batsmen as well as bowlers.
PROBABLE PLAYING XI OF Lancashire
Alex Davies, Liam Livingstone, Steven Croft, Glenn Maxwell, Dane Vilas (c/wk), James Faulkner, Keaton Jennings, Josh Bohannon, Saqib Mahmood, Richard Gleeson, Matthew Parkinson
PROBABLE PLAYING XI OF Essex
Tom Westley, Cameron Delport, Adam Wheater (wk), Daniel Lawrence, Ryan ten Doeschate, Ravi Bopara, Paul Walter, Simon Harmer (c), Mohammad Amir, James Porter, Adam Zampa
MATCH PREVIEW
Lancashire
- Lancashire Lightning made a couple of changes to their side in the previous match against Leicestershire Foxes – they dropped Danny Lamb and Liam Hurt and replaced them with Saqib Mahmood and Richard Gleeson.
- Glenn Maxwell was promoted to number four last time out while Josh Bohannon was pushed down the order.
- Maxwell made a vital contribution with the bat and he is likely to continue at the top of the order.
- Lancashire will continue to open their batting with Alex Davies and Liam Livingstone.
- Lancashire Lightning have finished atop the North Group points table with 20 points.
- They won eight and lost just a couple of games during the league stage and are coming into the quarter-finals on the back of three wins in their last four completed fixtures.
- After their rained-out encounter against the Birmingham Bears, they secured a 25-run victory over Worcestershire Rapids in their next match before suffering an 11-run loss at the hands of Derbyshire Falcons.
- Lancashire played their last game against Leicestershire Foxes which they ended up winning by five wickets.
Essex
- Essex Eagles have fielded the same group of eleven in their last two matches. Since they went on to win both those matches, we don’t expect them to make changes to their winning combination, especially at this stage of the tournament.
- Tom Westley and Cameron Delport will continue to open the batting with Adam Wheater and Daniel Lawrence taking up their usual number three and four positions respectively. Mohammad Amir and James Porter will once again lead Essex’s bowling attack.
- Essex Eagles won five, lost four and tied one out of their fourteen league matches to finish fourth in the South Group standings with fifteen points.
- They started off their campaign rather poorly with three defeats from their first four completed matches but found some consistency towards the latter half of the league round.
- Essex is yet to lose a game since facing a heavy 114-run loss to Somerset earlier last month.
- They have since beaten Sussex Sharks by nine runs and tied with Hampshire before securing back-to-back wins – against Surrey by 19 runs and against Kent Spitfires by 10 runs.
PROBABLE WINNING TEAM:
Lancashire has more players in good form and they have a better-balanced side which is why we expect them to win this first quarter-final.
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