The Essex Eagles will be Glamorgan’s opponents in their semi-final contest in the Royal London One-Day Cup at Sophia Gardens on Monday, 16 August starting at 1100. (writes Andrew Hignell)
Saturday saw the Essex Eagles defeat the Yorkshire Vikings by 129 runs in the play-off game at Chelmsford with Josh Rymell making 121 whilst Jack Plom took 3/34 and captain Tom Westley 3/33. The Eagles now travel to Glamorgan as the Welsh county host their first home semi-final in List A cricket since 2000.
As the list below shows of their recent encounters in List A games at Cardiff, Glamorgan have won two of their last three matches against Essex at Sophia Gardens.
31 July 2006 - Match Abandoned
12 May 2009 – Essex won by 7 wickets
6 May 2011 - No Result
31 July 2015 – Glamorgan won by 146 runs
7 May 2017 – Glamorgan won by 1 run
17 April 2019 – Essex won by 180 runs
Glamorgan’s most recent victory over Essex at Sophia Gardens in May 2017 was a dramatic affair after Colin Ingram had struck an imperious 142 including three massive sixes in the penultimate over bowled by Ryan ten Doeschate as Essex conceded 87 runs in the last nine overs. However, Essex seemed to be cruising to their target following a century by Varun Chopra. With 68 needed from nine overs, his stand with Ravi Bopara was abruptly ended as Chopra drilled a ball back to Craig Meschede in his follow through who deflected the ball onto the stumps with Bopara, who was backing up, stranded out of his ground.
Two balls later, Meschede bowled Chopra as the former batsman chopped onto his stumps. Panic then set-in amongst the visitors’ ranks as Michael Hogan and Marchant de Lange returned in frugal mode for the closing overs. Neither conceded a boundary and Essex became more frantic, further run outs took place as the Welsh county won by one run.
Their victory in 2015 was a much easier affair as another handsome hundred by Colin Ingram saw Glamorgan to a 146-run win, with Graham Wagg also chipping in with an unbeaten 62 before a fine all-round bowling performance snuffed out Essex’s victory ambitions. However, they were successful on their most recent visit to Cardiff in April 2019 with Varun Chopra, now on loan at Middlesex, making 111 with Tom Westley and Dan Lawrence also making half-centuries before Ravi Bopara, who now plays in white ball cricket for the Sussex Sharks, claimed 3/26 to see Essex to a comprehensive win by 180 runs.
The two counties have met before in a semi-final of a one-day tournament, with Essex winning the nerve-jangling contest at Chelmsford in 1997 by just one wicket after something of a cliff-hanger when bad light ended play on the first day with Essex needing six runs with two wickets in hand and 42 balls remaining. Waqar Younis had been recalled to the attack but after one ball, the umpires consulted about the light and took the players off the field. There was also a frank exchange of views between Robert Croft and Mark Ilott, the Essex batsman, with their argument captured by the TV cameras and replayed again on the headline sequence on `News at Ten`.
It was a much overblown incident, highlighting the raw emotions and deep desire to win on both sides. The following morning, Waqar duly completed his over and conceded a further three runs before Darren Thomas struck with his first delivery. With last man Peter Such, striding to the wicket, Glamorgan were favourites to win, but after fending off a couple of short balls and digging out a yorker, Such struck a full toss through the covers to seal victory for his team.