9:25am Thursday 29th July 2010
ESSEX return to County Championship action today with the wind in their sails.
They followed up a decent draw with Division One leaders Yorkshire at Chelmsford last week with a fine victory over Lancashire to secure a semi-final berth in the Friends Provident t20.
That match on Saturday, August 14, sees the Eagles take on Hampshire Royals at the Rose Bowl.
But head coach Paul Grayson has told the team to forget about that match and focus fully on the task in hand at Canterbury.
“The boys won’t be celebrating too hard because we have got a lot of tough cricket ahead starting with Kent on Thursday morning,” Grayson said.
“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”.
Grayson knows Kent have a game in hand on Essex and will be looking to make up ground in the four-day match.
He also said there was no too much between the two sides when they met at Chelmsford earlier in the season in a match the visitors won by six wickets.
James Foster and his Essex players will be hoping to secure a victory at Canterbury to act as a springboard for their festival match against Warwickshire at Southend’s Garon Park, which starts on Wednesday, August 4.
But while Grayson admits both fixtures will be tough, he is confident Essex are in good enough form to get something from the matches.
“I think that our four-day cricket has been excellent in the last month or six weeks,e he said.
“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.”
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.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.gazette-news.co.uk/trade_directory/