The Vitality Blast continues on Saturday with one more match as we head into the final week of the group phase of the competition when the attention is on the South Group as Sussex play host to Essex in a key clash.
Sussex already know they are in the quarter finals and will be looking to secure a home game while Essex will be hoping to strengthen their claims for a place in the last eight. It is the live stream that Sussex provide which you need to watch this one.
Sussex
This has been a wonderful campaign for Sussex so far and being through to the knockout stage of the tournament with three matches left is a fine achievement. They still have to secure a home game and they will move to within a win of achieving that if they come out on top here and then their task will be to try and maintain some momentum because the quarter finals of this competition doesn’t take place until The Hundred has been played out.
Sussex go into the game off the back of a good few days. They got the better of Hampshire on Wednesday night and then took care of Kent in emphatic fashion on Friday night. Interestingly, they omitted Tymal Mills from the Friday game, presumably with the aim of having him available here. The ironic thing is that it was the first time in a while that their bowling didn’t leak a big score, although to be fair to Mills, Sussex had put scoreboard pressure on Kent.
Essex
Essex have been regulars at finals day in recent times and if they are going to get back to Edgbaston for the big show this time around then they are going to need to deliver a strong finish to their group phase. They go into this match in fourth spot but there are a couple of teams beginning to queue up in behind them and waiting for them to slip up so the Eagles could do themselves a huge favour if they come out on top here. They wouldn’t quite secure a last eight berth with a win but they would be on the edge of it.
Essex also go into this match off the back of a routine win over Kent and the good thing for the Eagles is they are starting to get their regular bowling unit back to deliver the goods. There was the concern when Daniel Sams picked up the injury which has ended his season that the bowling would fall apart a little at both ends of the innings but that hasn’t been the case so far. Essex bat deep so if their bowling delivers too they are going to be hard to beat.
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Key Players
Daniel Hughes has been one of the best batters in the competition and if the Australian can get after the Essex bowlers like he has done most of the others in the South Group then Sussex are going to be on their way here.
Sam Cook has recently returned from injury for Essex and his return has been timed well given that the Eagles were short of a bowler in the powerplay and at the death after the injury to Daniel Sams. If he can grab a pole or two early on Essex will be well in this game.
Betting
It is hard to see this match not being a high scoring one. It was high scoring when these two met at Chelmsford when Essex posted 178/9 before Sussex chased it down with more than four overs to go with a flurry of boundaries and everyone getting stuck into the bowling. Since then, Sussex games have tended to be high scoring unless they have played against a side who are out of form like on Friday when they beat Kent. Essex matches are high scoring too.
These are two very powerful batting units and this Hove ground really isn’t too big, especially for these two sides. We have just had a match here which had 52 boundaries in it and so the 41.5 boundary line for this match looks on the low side. Sussex have scored 180 or more in their last five matches while Essex would have scored 175 or more in four of their last five had they not reached their target. Neither of these attacks are watertight so I expect the boundaries to flow here.
Tips
Back Over 41.5 boundaries for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Bet365
