Squad announced for Wednesday's 'El Clasicoast' with 90% of tickets sold

Sussex Sharks will finally get their 2019 Vitality Blast campaign underway with ‘El Clasicoast’ against Hampshire at The 1st Central County Ground on Wednesday evening.

While the opposition remains the same from Friday’s abandoned match at the Ageas Bowl, the weather forecast could not be more different with wall-to-wall sunshine expected to greet a bumper crowd. Over 90% of tickets for the match have been sold as of Tuesday afternoon.

An unchanged Sharks squad has been named for the derby encounter, with England left-arm seamer Reece Topley in-line for his first-team debut and a return to competitive action after more than a year on the side-lines.

Chris Jordan is making good progress in recovering from his minor knee injury but is not available for Wednesday’s fixture. George Garton is also out having suffered a reoccurrence of his side injury last week, while Stiaan van Zyl is rested having aggravated his elbow injury during the Specsavers County Championship match against Lancashire.

Relishing the start of this year’s Blast, Sharks head coach Jason Gillespie said: “The weather forecast for tomorrow is good, we’re expecting a big crowd coming down, so it’ll be very exciting to get cracking in the tournament.

“We’ve kept the same squad from Friday night. Chris Jordan is still not quite ready, but we’re hoping he’ll be available for selection pretty soon.

“A number of the lads had the opportunity to play two games for the second team on Monday. That has got everyone into the T20 mode and mindset. You can’t beat going out there and playing games as opposed to training in the nets, so it was a really worthwhile exercise.

“Everyone’s very excited. We’ve got a wonderful cricket ground here at Hove and hopefully as many of our fans as possible will make it down tomorrow night to support the boys and we’ll be looking to entertain them as best we can.”

Sussex Cricket would like to thank tomorrow’s match sponsor, Coco Fuzion 100.

Sussex Sharks Squad

Luke Wright (c), Will Beer, Danny Briggs, Ben Brown (wk), Laurie Evans, Harry Finch, Rashid Khan, Tymal Mills, Delray Rawlins, Ollie Robinson, Phil Salt, Aaron Thomason, Reece Topley, David Wiese

Opposition

After the first El Clasicoast was lost to the weather, Hampshire were back in action at home on Sunday afternoon against Kent Spitfires. James Vince (51 off 35 balls) and Kyle Abbott (3 for 22) were the stand-out performers for Adrian Birrell’s men as they lost a tight game by two wickets.

That match saw Hampshire T20 debuts for Aneurin Donald, James Fuller and South African all-rounder Chris Morris.

Hampshire are one five teams in the nine-team South Group with two fixtures behind them. At this early stage, they sit in seventh place.

Squad: James Vince (c), Kyle Abbott, Tom Alsop (wk), James Fuller, Sam Northeast, Chris Morris, Chris Wood, Brad Taylor, Rilee Rossouw, Lewis McManus, Liam Dawson, Aneurin Donald, Mason Crane, Ryan Stevenson

Match Information

Sussex Sharks v Hampshire at The 1st Central County Ground on Wednesday 24th July. Play starts at 7pm, with gates opening at 5.30pm.

A map of The 1st Central County Ground and a guide to the game can be downloaded at the bottom of this page.

Over 90% of tickets for this match have now been sold. Remaining tickets are available to buy online, over the phone or in person from the club shop until midday on Wednesday. Phone lines and the club shop are expected to be extremely busy, so customers are encouraged to use the ‘Print at Home’ facility online.

 If any tickets are still available after midday on Wednesday, these will be available from the box office at the Eaton Road gate from 4pm until the start of play. No tickets are available to purchase between 12pm and 4pm on the day of the game.

Supporters that buy tickets in advance will save £5 on gate prices. Please note, family tickets are only available to buy in advance and are not available on the gate.

To celebrate the start of this year’s tournament, official Sussex Sharks Vitality Blast playing shirts are available online and in the club shop with a 20% discount!  

The reception/club shop will close at midday on Wednesday and reopen when gates open at 5.30pm.

Supporters that are unable to make the game can follow the game live on the Sussex Cricket Match Centre. Please note, a livestream of this match will not be available.