The best day of the cricketing year has arrived and the first match of the NatWest T20 Blast Finals Day sees the hosts Birmingham Bears taking on the surprise package Glamorgan in the opening semi-final at Edgbaston.
Glamorgan have dominated this competition so far in this campaign but this will be their first visit to the final day since 2004 while Birmingham Bears are often at this stage of the tournament so they will hope experience tells.
Birmingham Bears
The champions of 2014 are at their third Finals Day in four years and will be looking to regain the title. They could be called the form horse heading into the day having flown home in their group before a brilliant run chase in the quarter final ensured they would be invited to their own party once again.
The Bears have always had a very competent bowling attack but the big scores were often beyond them. We saw in the quarter final that those days are behind them. They have added two or three exciting young talents to their batting line up since the beginning of this tournament and they look all the better for it.
Glamorgan
Heading into the campaign I had a feeling Glamorgan were the dark horses for this competition and that is how it has played out but with four remaining they can no longer have that tag and it will be interesting to see how they perform under the expectation of being so close to something really significant.
I was hoping to see that in the quarter final but sadly Leicestershire faced to turn up so we will only really know how Glamorgan cope mentally in this match because it is hard to believe that the Bears will be as bad as Leicestershire were. If Glamorgan are on it they have all the power with the bat and mite with the ball to challenge anyone.
Team News
Birmingham Bears have named a squad of 18 for the day which is pretty big when you think they are the home side. That squad includes Chris Woakes who has been released by England to take part in the day.
Glamorgan have managed to hang on to David Miller for the day so he will be in their middle order. They have an unchanged squad from the semi-final so they are at full strength.
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Betting
I’m on both these sides for the tournament so I don’t need to bet on the semi-final. I can sit back and hope whoever comes through goes all the way later in the day so I’ll look elsewhere for bets here.
I think we are set for a high scoring first semi-final. Glamorgan haven’t really played in many matches that haven’t been full of runs this season with the exception of their quarter final and we saw in Birmingham’s last eight match that they can go toe to toe in a run fest.
Both these batting line ups have plenty of power and on a fresh wicket which will surely play wonderfully not just because it is a showpiece occasion but because it has to last the course of 120 overs I just see this one being high scoring. The runs line is 320.5 and if neither side freezes on the big occasion, and there is enough experience in their ranks that I don’t think they will, then this should be covered.
I can’t resist a cheeky dabble on David Miller to be the man of the match here. We know one thing about Edgbaston and that is the ground is not big enough for him if he gets going and we has already made a powerful 75* on this ground this year when he took Pakistan to the cleaners here in the Champions Trophy. If Woakes doesn’t have his best stuff this Bears side can go the distance at the death and the huge hitting South African could be the man most responsible.
Tips
WON – Back Over 320.5 runs for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back it here:
Back D.Miller Man of the Match for a 1/10 stake at 11.00 with Betfred
Back him here:
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