The Specsavers County Championship treads new ground this week as the first ever day-night round of matches takes place to prepare the potential England players for the day-night Test match later in the season.
It means rather than a red ball being in operation this week the matches will use a pink ball especially designed to be able to be seen in twilight and the whole dynamic of the day changes. All 18 sides are in action so we have nine matches to go at.
Division One
The leaders Essex have a home game when they take on the champions Middlesex at Chelmsford while chasers Hampshire host Somerset at the Ageas Bowl. Second placed Lancashire will hope to keep up the heat on Essex when they head to bottom of the table Warwickshire while the match of the round could come from Headingley when Yorkshire host Surrey.
Division Two
There is a cracking looking contest in this division when two of the best in it go up against each other when Nottinghamshire host Kent at Trent Bridge. Worcestershire sit in between the two in the table and they head to Durham who have plenty of motivation heading into that match. The other three games see Glamorgan hosting Derbyshire in Cardiff, Northamptonshire playing Leicestershire at Northampton and Gloucestershire heading to Hove to take on Sussex.
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Betting
I’m going to take one in each division this week. I don’t want to go too mad because there are a lot of unknowns and in some cases there are players disappearing after two days to play for the England Lions which is a ridiculous situation to be frank.
In the top flight it is hard to ignore how woeful Warwickshire are at the minute and while counties have their England players back this week theirs is injured in the form of Chris Woakes. Lancashire have Jimmy Anderson available and off the back of absolutely destroying Hampshire last week and with Warwickshire suffering back to back innings losses this looks like an obvious away win.
In the second division Worcestershire might have picked the wrong time to face Durham. Durham have Ben Stokes and Mark Wood in their side for this match and Tom Latham replaces a Stephen Cook who didn’t really do much in the Championship. Worcestershire get Moeen Ali back but he isn’t going to do much with the ball at the Riverside and they lose Joe Clarke halfway through the match. Worcestershire will be buzzing from their win last week but that was a match they will lose nine times out of 10. With Stokes and Wood boosting Durham’s side here I have to take the hosts.
Tips
PUSH – Back Lancashire to beat Warwickshire for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with BetBright
Back them here:
PUSH – Back Durham to beat Worcestershire for a 4/10 stake at 2.15 with BetVictor
Back them here:
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