The pre-season predictions are looking accurate.

Essex have continued where they left off last season in one-day cricket, but are struggling in the county championship.

Mark Pettini’s men are level on points with leaders Lancashire in Group D of the Friends Provident Trophy.

And they have the chance to rise above the rest today when they face Glamorgan at the Swalec Stadium (2.40pm start).

Currently halfway through the group stage, Essex must be the favourites to qualify for the quarter-finals.

Their one-day game is like a well-oiled machine, as shown in Sunday’s demolition of Lancashire at Chelmsford.

For Essex though, there is a need to succeed in the one-day arena, because they are growing ever more exasperating in the championship and show no sign of growing into a side capable of gaining promotion to division one.

They will again be without England star Ravi Bopara, whose return to county cricket lasted just one afternoon.

Bopara asked to play against Lancashire at the weekend to help him retain his form ahead of the Second Test against the West Indies.

However, Essex fans expecting a repeat of the century-heroics of last week were left disappointed as he was out for two.

Jaik Mickleburgh is likley to come into Bopara’s place, while skipper Pettini will be hoping for some runs after a disappointing start to the season which has seen him pass 50 only once in 12 innings.

Essex’s bowling is expected to remain unchanged following their fine performance in the victory over Lancashire.

Danish Kaneria showed greater control, while David Masters showed his rest from championship action last week paid off.

Glamorgan’s only win so far this season in the competition came against Essex, when they successfully chased down Essex’s total of 297.

Essex coach Paul Grayson said his side can’t expect to win every game.

“It was a really good performance on Sunday because Lancashire had made a good start in the competition and it was an important game for us to win.”

“We had a good side out with Ravi Bopara back which gave us a lift and David Masters returned to the team after a week’s rest and showed just how good and effective he is with the new ball.

“We know it will be a tough game at Cardiff because they played well when they came to us and Mark Cosgrove played superbly and changed the game but we’ve won three out of four now and we are satisfied with that.

“We have no divine right to win every one-day match even though we know we are a good one-day side and you have to be realistic, we are not going to win every game and around this time last year, we’d lost a couple of matches in the competition but we still went on to win it.

“So we are going to experience occasions when a team plays better than us but when that happens, it hurts us because this Essex team is not used to losing one-day matches.

“We’ve made a solid start in the competition this season and this is a big week of one-day cricket for us with the Glamorgan game before we travel to Northants on Sunday and then face Derbyshire at Chelmsford on Monday.”

Essex: (from) Mark Pettini (captain), Varun Chopra, Matthew Walker, Grant Flower, James Foster (Wicket Keeper), Ryan ten Doeschate, James Middlebrook, Graham Napier, Chris Wright, David Masters, Danish Kaneria, Jaik Mickleburgh, Mervyn Westfield.