The two sides have been among the most powerful Blast outfits in recent years, meeting in the final at Edgbaston in 2017. They have fought out some fantastic matches in the format and another is promised at Trent Bridge on Friday when both teams will look to extend their strong start to the North Group campaign.
Ed Pollock and Michael Burgess are hitting it brilliantly in the nets so I would be amazed if they didn’t play a match-winner very soon.
Adam Hose
“It
should be a great game,” said Hose. “The Outlaws are a strong team
with a good record in the format. They have some dangerous players but will be
well aware that so do we and we pose just as big a threat.
“We
have a nice balance to the side this year. We’re still looking to put that
perfect game together, it’s not often any team does that, but there have been a
lot of good individual performances with bat and ball and that is encouraging.
“Ashton
Agar coming in has given us a great balance. Guys like him who can come in at
four, five or six and strike it, move the ball away from the bat and field
brilliantly are worth their weight in gold.
“We
know that he is going to contribute in some way in every game. That’s great for
us because, alongside that experience, we are still mostly a young side and
having young guys means we have a lot of energy and dynamism. I think we can
challenge hard this year.”
Such a
challenge will require Hose and his fellow top-order strikers to deliver plenty
of match-shaping innings, which has happened in the early games with Ed
Pollock, Sam Hain and Agar making light work of a small chase against Leicestershire
Foxes and Hain and Hose sharing a blistering partnership of 113 in 11 overs
against Derbyshire Falcons.
“We
know what a difference it makes if one or two guys in the top order go
big,” said Hose. “Ashton, Sam and I have scored a few runs and
hopefully we can do that consistently through the group but Ed Pollock and
Michael Burgess are hitting it brilliantly in the nets so I would be amazed if
they didn’t play a match-winner very soon.”
