IN-FORM Essex bowler Jamie Porter is looking forward to coming face-to-face with Surrey’s Kumar Sangakkara.

The four-day County Championship match gets underway in Chelmsford today.

And while Porter will go into the clash off the back of claiming career best bowling figures of 5-24 in the thrashing of Hampshire last time out, Sangakkara has scored centuries in each of his last four County Championship innings at an average of 98.67.

The Sri Lankan veteran is within 87 runs of passing 1,000 runs across all formats this season, making him English cricket’s in-form batsman.

But Porter will relish the opportunity to bowl at the former Sri Lankan Test captain.

Porter said: “I think the game is a lot harder if you fear your opponents.

“He’s obviously one of the great players of the modern game. But he is someone I wouldn’t want to fear too much because then you put all your eggs in one basket.

“If you worry too much about one player, you forget about the other 10. And that can be dangerous.

“If you bowl enough balls in the right area, like you would to anyone else, you may get him out. All I can do is put the ball on the spot as many times as possible.”

Essex currently top Division One of the County Championship and are one point ahead of Surrey.

But Porter has noticed no obvious difference between Divisions One and Two since promotion last year.

Porter, 24, added: “I found it quite frustrating the season before this - my second full season - when people said it would be hard to do as well as I had in my first season and take fifty wickets again. I just thought it was a load of rubbish.

“I was bowling at the same players in the same environment and I was still getting them out. I thought the same this year.

“I bowled at Test players in Division Two, so they are not going to be worse than the guys I bowl to in this division.

“When you bowl to Alastair Cook in the nets every day, there is no one harder in the world to get out than that man. So I kind of knew there was no real secret to doing well in this division.”

Porter is looking to add to the seven Hampshire wickets he took against Surrey.

“It was nice to get the five-fer, but in my head it means nothing if I can’t back it up this week,” admitted Porter.

Essex: Ryan ten Doeschate, James Foster, Ravi Bopara, Nick Browne, Varun Chopra, Alastair Cook, Simon Harmer, Dan Lawrence, Jamie Porter, Matt Quinn, Neil Wagner, Paul Walter, Tom Westley