Nothing to Fear

Hampshire Royals will take on Essex Eagles in the first semi-final of t20 Finals Day. Manager, Giles White looks ahead to the clash.

Hampshire Royals manager, Giles White says his team have nothing to fear going into their Friends Provident t20 Cup semi-final against the Essex Eagles.

The draw was made on Tuesday night after the Eagles beat Lancashire by 8 wickets at Chelmsford. The two teams will now meet at The Rose Bowl on Finals Day on the 14th August before the winner has the chance to play either Somerset or Nottinghamshire in the Final later that day.

Hampshire will be involved in the first semi-final which starts at 11.30am and White says it's neither an advantage nor a disadvantage to be up first; “We’re happy to play early. We know the conditions here and we’ll keep to our game plan whatever, so I’m not worried about that.”

Hampshire met the Eagles in the Group Stages, coming out on the wrong side of a result both times but Chalky says that won’t make any difference come the 14th August. “Well, we beat them twice in the competition last year so it just goes to show that t20 is about making sure you win when it matters and put in a performance at the right times.

“I also feel we’ve hit a bit of a run of form at the moment and got a lot of good wins, particularly in one day cricket, so hopefully we can maintain that going into Finals Day. If we do that, I think we’ve got nothing to fear.”

Ravi Bopara has been the scourge of Hampshire so far this season. In both matches that he’s been available for – both at The Rose Bowl – his batting has frustrated Giles' team. The England star scored a career-best 94 in the t20 group match and put up a superb defensive batting performance to earn Essex a draw in a rain-affected County Championship match.

“Yeah.” Chalky agrees, “Ravi’s had a good season, but if we bowl well, stick to our game plan and take our chances we’ll have a chance. There’s going to be a lot of good players on show on Finals Day – and we’ll have some of them – so we just need to take our A game.

“There’s no good or bad teams at this stage of the competition, and we’re going to have to beat the best to win it, but I feel sure we can do that.”

Nic Pothas was the Royals' star performer at Chelmsford  scoring 59 off 27 deliveries

For the Royals, youngsters James Vince (66*) and Danny Briggs (3-29) were the stand-out performers in the quarter-final against Warwickshire, but with more experienced heads like  Michael Lumb and Simon Jones potentially available against for Finals Day after some time out, White may have some headaches over team selection.

“Yeah, but they’re always good headaches to have. As a coach it’s good for me to have competition in my squad and plenty of guys to choose from. And it’s actually good for the players too, because it keeps them on their toes; keeps them playing at the top of their game.

“We have a couple of matches between now and then for players to stake their claim for a semi-final starting place, and I’ll make any decisions nearer to the time.”

And finally, what of fellow semi-finalists Nottinghamshire and Somerset? “We’ve played Somerset a few times now, so we know all about them. We’re also very aware of the threat Notts pose, we’ve seen them on the TV so we’re under no illusions as to how good they are.

“But, for me, what’s important right now is to take each game as it comes, look at one team at a time and, first-and-foremost, we look at how to beat Essex. Anything after that we’ll look at in due course.”

Find out how to get your hands on one of the last few remaining tickets by clicking here.

Words: Simon Vincent, Images: LMI Photography

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