Worcestershire Rapids will select from an unchanged squad as they bid to complete a hat-trick of Royal London Cup wins in Thursday’s day-night encounter with Essex Eagles at Chelmsford (2pm start).
The Rapids have shown different qualities to triumph in their opening two encounters, chasing down 300 plus to defeat Kent and then defending a low total versus Gloucestershire under the Duckworth-Lewis Method.
Now they will be trying to topple the reigning Bob Willis Trophy holders.
Rapids Assistant Coach, Alan Richardson, said: “It’s nice to win some games of cricket. We want to compete as much as we can in this competition.
“We have no idea what sort of opposition we are going to come up against.
“Different sides have been affected by The Hundred in different ways, so we will just take what is in front of us and see how we go.
“But it is nice to win games of cricket, and we are trying to develop players along the way as well and, to get those wins, will give us some nice confidence going forward.
“It is a bit of a fortress, is Chelmsford, not only in red-ball but historically in white-ball cricket as well.
“They’ve got some good players in Sir Alastair Cook, Simon Harmer, Ryan ten Doeschate and Tom Westley, a lot of good experienced players that the youngsters will enjoy coming up against.
“To go to Essex, to play them in their own back yard, will be another huge challenge for us.”
Richardson has been delighted with how the Rapids have risen to two different challenges presented in the games against Kent and Gloucestershire.
He said: “We are going to have to find a lot of different ways of trying to compete and trying to win games of cricket, and we’ve done two very different ones.
“On Sunday, against Kent, it was a terrific cricket wicket, and that was a magnificent chase led by Joe (Leach) at the end.
“Bristol was more of a challenging surface. They played on it on Sunday, and it was 170 versus 170 in 40 overs.
“Two very different games of cricket but two we’ve handled very well and two that we will learn from.”
The Rapids will choose from the 11 players in action at Bristol plus all-rounder Jacques Banton and keeper Henry Cullen.
The two LV=Insurance County Championship games with Essex this season both ended in high-scoring draws.
