After a completely random round of matches in the County Championship, the NatWest T20 Blast returns on Thursday night with two matches from the South Group. We have reached the stage of the season where the competition runs alongside the Kia Women’s Super League so the competition will be in the spotlight for a while.
We have one match in front of the cameras on Thursday night which is the one between Hampshire and Glamorgan which follows that women’s match while the other game will have updates in the usual places.
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Hampshire vs Glamorgan
This is a reverse fixture of the opening night of the tournament where Hampshire saw off Glamorgan but since then their campaigns have gone in different directions. Hampshire have been inconsistent while Glamorgan have dominated when they haven’t been frustrated by the rain.
To make matters worse for Hampshire in this match they are missing some key players. They will be without four first teamers in Michael Carberry, Rilee Rossouw, Lewis McManus and Reece Topley so there will be a lot of filling in being done especially with the bat.
Glamorgan will be without David Miller from now on too but they have known he was leaving at this point so that shouldn’t provide as much upheaval as the Hampshire injuries. I don’t like taking on this Hampshire bowling attack too often but Glamorgan look the stronger side to me and at odds against they are a fairly obvious call.
I’m also going to take the performance of Colin Ingram. I don’t need to dwell on this one too much. I’ve been bigging the South African up all tournament but he is brutal with the bat and on a wicket that will already have had 40 overs on it his leg spin could come in handy too. His line of 34.5 looks low.
Given Hampshire’s absences with the bat I just wonder if they will throw Shahid Afridi up the order for a bit of slap and tickle especially as there is a spot at opener free for somebody. It might well be that Tom Alsop or Jimmy Adams fills that but if Hampshire don’t want to tinker with the side too much then they could throw Afridi up and sacrifice him given that he has little impact down the order. At 20/1 I’ll pay to see what happens.
Middlesex vs Sussex
Two sides in desperate need of a win to keep pace with the top four meet at Lord’s where Middlesex host Sussex in a do or die clash for both teams. It is probably bigger for Middlesex given that they sit three points adrift of the top four with matches running out but Sussex will not want to give anything away.
Middlesex haven’t been helped by absences in this tournament with the likes of Brendon McCullum now away and Paul Stirling, Dawid Malan, Toby Roland-Jones and Tim Southee also spending plenty of time away. Stirling and Southee return here which helps but I still like Sussex in this one.
To be fair I was going to leave this match alone until I saw that Luke Wright is back for Sussex. He strengthens their batting by enough to make them attractive here with the quality of their bowling attack backing them up. Sussex are on a bit of a roll right now and can put a Middlesex side who regularly struggle in this format to the sword.
Tips
Back Glamorgan to beat Hampshire for a 4/10 stake at 2.05 with BetVictor
Back them here:
WON – Back C.Ingram’s Performance – Over 34.5pts for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back it here:
Back S.Afridi Top Hampshire Batsman for a 1/10 stake at 21.00 with Betfair
Back him here:
Back Sussex to beat Middlesex for a 4/10 stake at 1.85 with 888sport
Back them here:
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