Cumbria entertain Staffordshire in the quarter final of the NCCA NVPlay One Day Trophy at Edenside, Carlisle, on Sunday.
The hosts are expecting to just make the one change from the side which lost both T20 games at the weekend with captain Michael Slack returning in place of Stan McAlindon.
The captain returns to the county side after missing all bar the first game of the season.
Staffordshire have named a strong and experienced squad.
James Kettleborough (Northants, Glamorgan), Sam Kelsall (Notts), Dan Lincoln (Middlesex, Kent) and Tom Brett (Northants) have all previously played first-class cricket.
This season they have integrated three new signings from other national counties.
Lincoln from Berkshire needs no introduction to Cumbria supporters after captaining his old county to 3 One Day trophies at Wormsley against Cumbria between 2021 and 2023.
Both Ollie Walker and Sam Keeling-Wright have arrived from Herefordshire since last season.
It is a policy that has worked well for Staffordshire in the past with both captain Kettleborough and Brett arriving from Bedfordshire in 2023 and Kelsall transferring from Lincolnshire in 2016.
Although transferring in, Kettleborough and Keeling-Wright play locally in Staffordshire whilst Kelsall and Walker were born in Staffordshire.
Should local players Tom Moulton or Callum Leese make the final XI they will be making their seasonal debut.
Kettleborough is the leading run scorer in the NCCA trophy this season with 287, over 50 more than any other player.
Lincoln and Walker have both scored over a 100 runs so far. Walker is also their leading wicket taker with nine.
Tom Fraine with 142 leads the way in runs for Cumbria with Freddie Fallows and Ethan Hardie-Knight, both on seven as the leading wicket takers.
The last time the two sides played each other in the Trophy was in 2021 at Cockermouth where Cumbria won by 2 wickets.
The last time the two sides met at Edenside was in 2022 playing 2 T20 games when Staffordshire won both with the first match remembered due to Riki Wessels scoring 65* at a strike rate of 325.
Combining all the white ball games scheduled home and away between the two sides (excluding the covid years) half (9 of 18) have been abandoned due to rain including the 2024 attempts to play T20 matches at Edenside, although one of those 9 (in 2019) was won by Cumbria in a bowl-out.
After a fair amount of rainfall this week the weather forecast for Sunday isn’t great.
- Cumbria squad: Michael Slack (Carlisle, capt), Louis Backhouse (Kendal), Sam Bates (Workington, wk), Freddie Fallows (Kendal), Tom Fraine (Clifton Alliance), Ethan Hardie-Knight (Cockermouth), Calum Rowe (Carlisle), Matthew Sempill (Cockermouth), Sam Sharp (Penrith), Ben Walkden (Newton-Willows), Nico Watt (Carlisle), Max Winskill (Shaw).
- Staffordshire squad: James Kettleborough (Checkley, capt), Sam Atkinson (Moddershall), Tom Brett (Finedon Dolben), Jacob Garlick (Modershall), Callum Hawkins (Moddershall), Sam Keeling-Wright (Old Hill), Sam Kelsall (Moddershall), Callum Leese (Hem Heath), Dan Lincoln (High Wycombe), Matthew Morris (Leek), Tom Moulton (Leek), Ollie Walker (Himley).
The match will be live streamed on Cumbria’s YouTube channel and is due to start at 11am, weather permitting.
Cumbria suffered double disappointment on Sunday when they lost both senior T20 games with Northumberland.
But there’s chance of revenge as the County Development team will play Northumberland (2nd XI) in 2 T20 games on Monday, again at the Allendale club.
The core of the development squad remains the same and once again it is led by Cockermouth’s Josh Brown.
Squad: Josh Brown (Cockermouth, capt), Aston Burwell-Garratt (Wetheral), Logan Edgar (Carlisle), Ethan Hardie-Knight (Cockermouth), Kian Larmour (Whitehaven), Josh Mackie (Millom), Freddie Newton (Carlisle), Matthew Reed (Wigton, wk), Reegan Scott (Cockermouth), Sam Staley (Heywood), Declan Tyson (Barrow), Ed Wade (Clifton Alliance).
The first match is scheduled to start 11am.
