After a day off the NatWest T20 Blast is back on Tuesday night and it returns with a televised match in the North Group between Northamptonshire and Yorkshire at Wantage Road as the competition continues in its early stage.
Both sides will be playing their third match of the campaign in this one and they head into it with a win and a defeat to their names each. Both teams lost to Derbyshire so there is a similar form guide for the two heading in.
Northamptonshire
The title defence for Northamptonshire began on a rocky path when they were humbled by Derbyshire on the opening night of the competition but they then went to Durham and picked up a win which should settle them down and allow them to express themselves in the way we have become accustomed to.
In the two matches so far Northamptonshire have conceded more runs than they would have wanted but they have always had the ability to score big. Someone in their top order usually bats for a long time and they have plenty of batting depth and big hitting which has made them very tough to beat recently.
Yorkshire
While Yorkshire are a much improved one day side they still don’t really convince me in this format of the game especially when their England players are missing. Admittedly they don’t miss as many these days but there is plenty of batting that they will be without. Yorkshire beat Nottinghamshire on Friday night before losing to Derbyshire.
Yorkshire piled on the runs against Nottinghamshire but fell three short against Derbyshire when Imran Tahir dominated them so they will be keen to stop conceding so many runs. One the bright side they have a very strong batting line up with depth right the way down to number nine so they should go well.
Team News
Northants will be without Mohammad Azharullah for this match after he was ruled out of the tournament. Richard Levi has missed the first two matches and he is doubtful for this one while Tabraiz Shamsi plays his final match.
Yorkshire will be without Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and Gary Ballance for this match but they do have both overseas players in place in Shaun Marsh and Peter Handscomb.
[the_ad_group id=”3624″]
Betting
If I was forced to pick one side to back in this match I would probably go with Northants but their injuries do worry I have to admit. That said Yorkshire are without players and aren’t always the most trustworthy so I’m not going to bet on the match.
Tim Bresnan did me a turn on Saturday when I took his performance line and we can get the same line here too. I see no reason why his role is going to change and so 34.5 is a total that is perfectly achievable. He scored 54pts in an average game with bat and ball on Saturday so if he has a day out with either here this line should be comfortably covered.
Yorkshire haven’t played spin well in this competition yet so there could be some value in taking Tabraiz Shamsi to be the leading Northamptonshire wicket taker in his final match before departing. He bagged 2/20 at Durham on a deck that isn’t known for helping spinners and if the seamers are tight Yorkshire might need to target him here. At 7/2 he’s worth a chance.
Tips
VOID – Back T.Bresnan’s Performance – Over 34.5pts for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back him here:
VOID – Back T.Shamsi Top Northamptonshire Bowler for a 2/10 stake at 4.50 with Paddy Power
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2017
