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Essex and Sussex meet at Chelmsford on Wednesday evening as the domestic Twenty20 season continues, writes Thomas Rooney.
Often one of the highlights of the summer, the Twenty20 games between the domestic counties are well underway in 2011 and there have already been some fantastic matches.
This match at the County Ground promises to be an entertaining one too with a number of big hitting batsmen on show, including Essex’s Graham Napier who smashed 152 from just 58 balls against Sussex in 2008.
Something this extraordinary is perhaps unlikely, but Essex were certainly in excellent form with the bat in their last match at Chelmsford.
James Foster’s men very much enjoy playing at home in this competition and it showed against Gloucestershire on Friday evening. They smashed 204 from their 20 overs, with Ravi Bopara, Napier, Owais Shah, Ryan ten Doeschate and Scott Styris all chipping in.
Essex then went on to bowl their opponents out for 82, so it was a convincing win for them on home turf and they will be in confident mood going into Wednesday’s fixtures.
Sussex have two wins from two Twenty20 games so far this campaign though, including a 32-run victory over Essex earlier this month, so it should be an interesting contest.
Led by the spin of Monty Panesar and Michael Yardy with the ball and the in-form Murray Goodwin with the bat, they are a decent force in this form of the game and will travel to Essex expecting victory.
Everybody knows that this isn’t easy though. Not many teams win at ‘fortress Chelmsford’ with the home crowd cheering on their team in an often loud and intimidating manner.
There won’t be too many opposition players that would enjoy playing in this atmosphere, but Sussex should learn from past mistakes – the 2008 hammering for example – and revel in the stick they get from Essex fans.
That’s what they should focus on – making sure the crowd stays quiet.
This could be an early wicket or a burst of early runs from the visitors, but it is important for Sussex that they get the upper hand. Otherwise, with the home crowd behind them, Essex could be unstoppable.
