Sussex result to influence One Day Cup progress
26 May 2018
Gloucestershire and Sussex meet in the Royal London Cup at the Brightside Ground on Sunday (11.00) with both teams knowing a victory would considerably enchance the hopes of the winners making the knockout stages.
Gloucestershire - who have won the last two List A games between the teams - currently occupy the final play off place in the South Group, but Sussex are only a point behind despite head coach Jason Gillespie's assessment that they were outplayed by Middlesex at Hove on Friday.
Gloucestershire's home game with Hampshire on the same day was washed out, which head coach Richard Dawson acknowledged puts the focus firmly on Sunday's match.
"It's a big game but we'll go through our usual preparation and hopefully get a dry day" Dawson said. "We haven't really spoken about winning or losing since pre-season, it's been more about how we've gone about our cricket. We've done well to chase down targets in two games and at the Oval on Wednesday we could have scored over 300 if we had played better in the first 20 overs. We've done some good things, but there are also some things we need to sharpen up for Sunday."
The teams have already met in the Championship this season, the match at Hove being rained off on the final day when either side might have won. Sussex batsman Luke Wright - who scored a T20 century at the Brightside Ground in 2015 - missed Friday's game with Middlesex because of injury after making 105 against Somerset earlier in the week. His availability will be important to the visitors while Gloucestershire are now without three of their quicker bowlers after Dan Worrall's stint at the club was cruelly cut short.
"Everything I saw in the winter was backed up when Dan got here" said head coach Richard Dawson. "We've enjoyed having him and he's tried really hard in testing circumstances at times. He's been class in the changing room and not only showed his skills but improved some of them which is what he wanted to do. He's a great bloke and a great contact to have made for the future."
As for a possible replacement, Dawson added "The world calendar is very congested now and finding available players is very difficult at short notice. They have to fulfill the skill set you want, and also tick the boxes over registration and visa criteria. I've been on the phone a lot since we knew of Dan's injury. There is no news yet."
Coverage:
You can follow the match via the live scorecard available on the website, or via Twitter @GlosCricket. Ball by ball commentary is also available on the BBC Sport website
