Surrey welcome Essex for their final home fixture of the season as the Three Feathers look to continue their push for a place in the semi-finals of the Metro Bank Women’s One Day Cup.
Surrey will play Essex at Beckenham on Wednesday in their final home game of the season. Play will begin at 10.30am.
Surrey know that two wins in the final two games of the season will secure that semi-final space with the final game of group stages coming on Saturday against Durham.
Surrey Squad
Bethan Miles is the only new addition to this week’s squad and offers left arm orthodox spin to the bowling attack.
How Can I Keep Up with Play?
The match will be broadcast live on Surrey’s YouTube channel with a link posted on the Surrey Match Centre and on the Club’s social media channels.
Surrey Cricket’s social media channels will provide live updates from Beckenham, with clips and highlights posted throughout the day. A written report and highlights will be available at the end of the match.
Last Time Out
Surrey last faced Essex in the Metro Bank Cup back in May at Chelmsford. The visiting side lost the toss and were sent out to bat first.
Surrey’s top order failed to find a lasting partnership. At the halfway mark, the Three Feathers were 117/6 with Kalea Moore and Ryana MacDonald-Gay fresh faces to the crease.
The two posted a 113 run partnership, each earning their maiden half centuries for Surrey and positioning the team in a healthy position come the end of the innings.
259 to defend, Surrey picked up wickets in clusters and reduced the hosts to 191/8 but Kate Coppack and Jo Gardener put together an excellent partnership to give Essex hope.
With two wickets in hand, Essex looked like they were favourites to win, requiring 14 from the final four overs.
Back for more, Ryana MacDonald-Gay returned to the attack and clinched the win in two top class deliveries, dismissing Essex’s final two batters with Gardener stranded on 73*.
Surrey now move to repeat their victory over the visitors, as a win tomorrow will solidify their place in the Metro Bank Women’s One Day Cup semi-finals.
Essex
Previewed by Jon Batham – ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay
Captain: Grace Scrivens
Head Coach: Andy Tennant
The big question: Arguably, Essex have the most settled line-up of the Tier One sides having largely kept together the Sunrisers’ Rachael Heyhoe Flint winning team from last season. That success came after three seasons of huge struggles, so having found a winning formula can this already bonded group repeat the trick?
Player to watch: Sophie Munro. Only Phoebe Turner took more than Munro’s 22 wickets in 50-over cricket last term. The 23-year-old seamer excelled after arriving on loan from The Blaze, proving especially adept towards the back end of an innings including the ‘death overs’. Munro made the move south from Nottingham permanent last September.
Young gun: Sophia Smale. Winning sides tweak, so the fact Smale is the only new addition is intriguing. The slow left-armer fills the void left by Mady Villiers’s departure to Durham, complementing the right-arm leg-spin of both Jodi Grewcock and Abtaha Maqsood in a powerful bowling unit. Only 19, Newport-born Smale has huge potential.
Final thought: Essex will bowl opposition sides out, so the challenge will be scoring enough runs, particularly when setting a target. Skipper Grace Scrivens will lead from the front, and it may need Cordelia Griffith to follow up on her four fifties in the last five games of last season if they are to regularly post totals in excess of 250.
Squad: Grace Scrivens (captain), Maddie Blinkhorn-Jones, Amara Carr, Kelly Castle, Kate Coppack, Ariana Dowse, Jo Gardner, Eva Gray, Jodi Grewcock, Cordelia Griffith, Esmae MacGregor, Lissy Macleod, Abta Maqsood, Flo Miller, Sophie Munro, Sophia Smale.
