Victory over the Sussex Sharks on Sunday has set the Essex Eagles up for a mouth-watering contest with Kent Spitfires tomorrow at the Cloudfm County Ground, with victory guaranteeing a place in the Royal London One Day Cup play-off stage.

Eagles head coach Anthony McGrath is delighted that his squad have rediscovered their touch in time to find themselves on the cusp of extending their interest in the 50-over competition.

“Given where we were a few games ago in this tournament, if someone had suggested that if we won our last game then we would qualify, we would certainly have taken it,” he admitted.

“We had put ourselves under a bit of pressure with some of our performances but wins in our last two games have put things back into our own hands.

“At the start of a competition like this, the first target is to reach the latter stages and we’ve given ourselves every opportunity of doing that.

“We go into this vitally important game having won two on the spin and hopefully, we can keep this momentum going.

“If we can get the win, then we will have peaked at the right time and hopefully be able to carry this level of performance into the next stages of the competition.”

The Spitfires arrive at Chelmsford two points ahead of Essex and one behind leaders Hampshire. Irrespective of their individual results in their remaining match, both Hampshire and the Spitfires have already secured their place in the last eight.

If Essex beat the Spitfires, then they will automatically qualify for the play-off stage of the competition. A win by a suitable margin will see them leapfrog Kent into second and secure a home tie.

McGrath’s side do still have a chance of qualifying should they lose, although that will depend on other results.

Essex Eagles squad: Ryan ten Doeschate (C), Ravi Bopara, Varun Chopra, Matt Coles, Sam Cook, Simon Harmer, Dan Lawrence, Jamie Porter, Shane Snater, Neil Wagner, Tom Westley, Adam Wheater (WK), Ashar Zaidi.