Match Preview: Hampshire Men v Essex, Metro Bank One Day Cup

Hampshire Men v Essex

Metro Bank One Day Cup

Thursday 7th August (11am start)

Utilita Bowl

Hampshire Men play their first 50 over home game against Essex at Utilita Bowl tomorrow.

Gubbins’ side have begun their campaign with a tremendous win against previous One Day Cup champions (Glamorgan). Essex are on the back foot having lost to Notts in the opening game.

Against Glamorgan, Gubbins played a captain’s innings with a career best of 144 runs whilst Mayes made 74 runs off 55 balls on debut. Another brilliant debut for Lumsden having taken 3 wickets in 5 overs; meanwhile, Kelly and Jack took 2 wickets apiece so Hampshire will go into this game feeling on form.

Hampshire Squad

Hampshire have named a 13-player squad for their second One Day game against Essex at Utilita Bowl.

Abbott replaces Eckland with the rest of the squad unchanged.

Full Hampshire squad

Essex

Captain: Tom Westley

2024 finish: Seventh (Group B)

2024 most runs: Robin Das (309)

2024 most wickets: Jamal Richards (15)

Why they can win the competition: With only four players seconded to The Hundred – compared with six last year – Essex will in theory have a larger pool of players to pick from. However, their plans were disrupted when Indian pace bowler Khaleel Ahmed belatedly pulled out of his all-formats contract; Essex are busily trying to sign an overseas replacement for at least part of the competition.

Player to watch: Robin Das top-scored last year, topped by an unbeaten century in a rare win at Trent Bridge. He has not built on that this season with only a couple of disappointing outings in both the Rothesay County Championship and Vitality Blast. If he finally rediscovers his form, it could reignite his career and lead to a memorable few weeks.

Young gun: Though still only 20, Luc Benkenstein has been a mainstay of Essex’s Metro Bank One-Day Cup team since his 2021 debut. He made his mark the following year with 6-42 against Glamorgan, though barely bowled last season because of injury. Now a Blast regular, the leggie will boost the spin options as well as adding big-hitting cameos down the order.

Final thought: Essex have won just seven of 24 One-Day Cup fixtures since they reached the semi-finals in 2021 – and four of 16 in the past two seasons – with some heavy defeats along the way. It is going to take a massive improvement in performance from essentially the same group of players, allied to some astute tactical acumen from captain Tom Westley, to turn around their white-ball fortunes after a torrid Blast campaign.

Head-to-Head

Hampshire Men’s record in the List A matches v Essex

Last five meetings:

• 8th August 2023 I Utilita Bowl I Hampshire won by 4 wickets
• 21st August 2022 I Utilita Bowl I Hampshire won by 3 wickets 
• 22nd July 2021 I Utilita Bowl I Essex won by 3 wickets
• 28th April 2019 I Chelmsford I Essex won by 111 runs
• 23rd May 2018 I Utilita Bowl I Hampshire won by 6 wickets

Tickets

Tickets for Hampshire Men’s One Day Cup match against Essex are available here.

Match information can be found here.

Coverage

A live stream will be available for the match at https://www.utilitabowl.com/cricket/, along with a live match centre with the scorecard, statistics and insight available throughout the match.

Weather Forecast

Please follow the link to view the latest weather forecast for Utilita Bowl: https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2637487