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Essex and Kent will be hunting for a place in the Twenty20 quarter-finals when they meet at Chelmsford this evening.
Although there are some other complications, this is essentially a winner takes all match with the winner progressing to the knock-out stages of this year’s competition.
With the Sky cameras in place, a sell-out crowd ready and two entertaining teams ready to do battle, tonight’s game should make for quite an evening.
Both teams have some excellent players on show, with several potential match-winners involved in this fascinating encounter.
Essex are sweating on the fitness of New Zealand all-rounder Scott Styris, but he is expected to be past fit and join fellow Countryman Tim Southee in the home team’s line-up.
Eagles skipper James Foster is back from suspension too. Then there is Ravi Bopara, Owais Shah, Graham Napier, Ryan ten Doeschate to consider as the home side field a near full-strength eleven.
As for Kent, they have some stand out players of their own. Captain Rob Key is always capable of scoring runs at the top of the order of course and will be crucial to their hopes.
Azhar Mahmood and Darren Stevens can be explosive with the bat too and take the contest away from the opposition if they are at the crease for a prolonged period of time.
Overseas duo Wahab Riaz and Charl Langeveldt will look to play their part too and the experience of England spinner James Tredwell will be valuable for the Spitfires.
All in all, it could come down to who handles the pressure of the occasion. Essex have home advantage and an enthusiastic crowd cheering them on, but Kent will be keen to quieten them by taking the game to the hosts.
When the sides met earlier in this year’s competition, Kent ran out comfortable winners by 8-wickets, but it is expected to be much closer this time around.
It could be one moment of magic that decides the outcome, whether that be a superb catch, a succession of sixes, a maiden over or an inspired piece of captaincy.
With so much to play for, every mistake will be highlighted and with this in mind, there is a lot of pressure on the players this evening. Hopefully they are able to let loose and provide everyone with a thoroughly entertaining evening of cricket.
