Nottinghamshire will find out who they are going to play in the Royal London One Day Cup final at Lord’s next month when Worcestershire host Surrey in the second semi-final at New Road on Saturday.
Worcestershire were too good for everyone in the North Group in the first stage of the competition and automatically made it into this semi-final while Surrey had to come past Yorkshire in the quarter final on Tuesday to seal their spot in this match.
Worcestershire
It was a good start to the season for Worcestershire who sauntered to top spot in the North Group while going well in the Championship at the same time but things have gone a little quiet for them since the Tom Kohler-Cadmore scandal developed. They have the ideal opportunity to put that behind them though.
Worcestershire’s bowling in the recent period hasn’t been brilliant but it hasn’t been that bad but their batting has clearly suffered as you would expect when such a classy player is taken out of the side. There is enough class in the Worcestershire batting to deliver the goods but they will need to be at their best.
Surrey
Surrey have ridden their luck at times to make it this far but they have made it into their third successive semi-final and will be hoping to convert that into their third straight final too. They have relied on their bowling attack this season and they have delivered for them but their batting is coming into form too.
That makes them very dangerous in this match but Yorkshire got to within 24 runs of them in the quarter final on Tuesday despite playing an outdated brand of cricket so Surrey might need to be better than they were in that match. They do have all the necessary experience to play to their best though.
Team News
England’s exit from the Champions Trophy means that Moeen Ali is available for Worcestershire in this match. John Hastings was always going to be available with Australia almost an afterthought in the ongoing ICC event.
Surrey will also be boosted by England’s demise. They have Jason Roy back for the game and you would think he would come straight into the side with Ollie Pope the obvious man to stand aside.
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Betting
I’m effectively on Worcestershire at a shade over 12/1 in this match having backed them each way before the tournament began. Therefore I’m not going to visit the match market. I will just hope Worcestershire come good for me.
There are bets I do like though. I’m expecting another high scoring match. We’ve seen three of them this week and in perfect scoring conditions I’m expecting the runs to flow here too. There have been four matches at New Road this season. They have had 54 boundaries in a shortened match, 74 boundaries, 62 and 44 on what might have been a used pitch. There hasn’t been cricket here for a week so the pitch should be good and we should sail past 58 boundaries.
Ben Foakes has been in excellent touch for a while and has 50s in his last two innings over the past week. His runs line in this match sits at 25.5 which looks low for the form he is in. He oozed class in an 80 odd at Yorkshire on Tuesday and on another decent batting track he should be equally at ease. As a Lions player looking to stay in the spotlight this is the perfect platform to deliver on so I’m happy to go over there.
Worcestershire have been known to play a flier on the opposition when it comes to the bat and with Tom Kohler-Cadmore out of the equation now I just wonder if they will go in with a pinch hitter to try and get the Currans and Dernbach off their lengths. If they do they could sacrifice Joe Leach and at 25/1 I’ll pay to see how he goes. He hasn’t done it this season but Leach regularly got thrown up the order last year so he can do it and this might be the ideal time to surprise Surrey and get Worcestershire off to a start.
Tips
WON – Back Over 58.5 boundaries for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with William Hill
Back it here:
WON – Back B.Foakes – Over 25.5 runs for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Ladbrokes
Back him here:
Back J.Leach Top Worcestershire Batsman for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with Coral
Back him here:
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