ESS vs GLA 78th Match - South Group Prediction

ESS vs GLA Team Previews

Essex

Essex hasn’t been the most consistent team this season. But with 3 consecutive wins in their last 3 outings, Essex has climbed to the 4th place on the South Group points table and trail 2nd placed Surrey by just 2 points and also has an extra game in hand.

Essex's most recent win came against Glamorgan in a reverse fixture played at Sofia Gardens and that should give them plenty of confidence. One of the biggest reasons for Essex’s inconsistent performance so far has been the form of its openers, Feroze Khushi and Robin Das.

They have had some good starts but there have been no standout performances from them. Michael Pepper, who has only recently joined the squad for this season has played a couple of good innings and will be hoping to build upon his form.

Paul Walter, who has been struggling throughout the season, scored a brilliant 78 in the last match. The bowlers have been excellent this season.

The seamers, Daniel Sams and Sam Cook have taken 26 wickets between them, while the spinners, Matthew Critchley and Simon Harmer have taken 24. Overall, Essex is in good shape at the moment but the batsmen will need to shoulder more responsibility going forward. 

Glamorgan

Just like their opponents, Glamorgan too hasn’t been in the best of forms this season. The loss against Essex was their second consecutive loss and they are now 5th on the points table, 4 points behind the top 2.

Kiran Carlson and Sam Northeast will be looking to give the team yet another good start here. The duo put up a solid 76-run opening partnership but that wasn’t nearly enough in the chase of a mammoth 227-run target. Glamorgan will be banking on Colin Ingram and Chris Cooke to play a big inning here. Ingram is the top-scorer for the team with 322 runs while Cooke has 284 against his name.

However, the batting lower down the order has been a bit of a letdown for the team as Callum Taylor, Billy Root, and Zain-ul-Hasan have all failed to score runs. Jamie McIlroy will once again lead the pace attack here. As the team awaits the fitness report of Dan Douthwaite, Timm van der Gugten is likely to support him at the other end.

Ruaidhri Smith bowled an excellent spell of 3 wickets for 33 runs in the last match and will once again be the 3rd seamer here. Peter Hatzoglou is the specialist spinner on the team.