HEREFORDSHIRE will be looking for their first victory of the season when they entertain Cheshire in an MCCA Trophy clash at Colwall on Sunday, starting at 11am.
The county side suffered a 30-run defeat in the first of the competition's round-robin matches against Shropshire at Kington last month.
Two of the county's Yorkshire-based players, Gulsheraz Ahmed and Tom Glover are unavailable for the Cheshire game and this allows two more local players to regain their places in the side.
Brockhampton seamer Richard Parker, a regular in the county line-up in recent seasons, will make his first appearance of the campaign while Andy Sutton, a seamer, who learned his cricket at Colwall and is now a member of the MCC Young Cricketers based at Lord's, is also included.
Herefordshire's hopes of victory will be boosted if former Glamorgan and Wales all-rounder Ian Thomas can turn in another display of the sort that he produced against Shropshire.
On that occasion, Thomas's off-spinners accounted for 5-28 as Shropshire were dismissed for 197. Some powerful hitting then saw the opener race to 49 before he was dismissed playing a reverse sweep, the same fate which befell him in the match against Cheshire last year when Herefordshire were beaten by just 11 runs on the Duckworth Lewis method.
Thomas, who scored 31 in the encounter at New Brighton, was making his debut for the county that day alongside teenage all-rounder Chris Woakes who is another who could have a major impact on events this Sunday.
The young Warwickshire player is highly regarded by his home county and bowled with some lively pace in the Shropshire clash.
Herefordshire will be up against a familiar face in the Cheshire side with their former wicket-keeper batsman Ismail Dawood named in the northern county's line-up as a batsman.
Dawood enjoyed plenty of success during his two spells with Herefordshire and still holds most of their wicket-keeping records as well as being a heavy scorer with the bat.
He figured for Herefordshire in one of their finest one-day moments, the ECB 38 Cup success over Cheshire at Lord's in 2000, alongside Harshad Patel and Chris Boroughs who still remain from the Herefordshire side which played that day.
Herefordshire: Chris Boroughs (capt), Harshad Patel, Ian Thomas, Henry Langford, Dave Exall, Ben Stebbings, Ian Stevenson, Owen Price, Chris Woakes, Richard Parker, Andy Sutton.
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