We have five matches in the Vitality Blast on Thursday evening under blue skies and heat hazes on what should be a great night in the shortest format of the domestic game. Every match counts from here on in so we should be assured of competitiveness.
Although the Test match is going on we still have a TV match to enjoy while many of the other four games will have live streams associated to them and then there is the excellent radio commentary as well.
18+ New UK+IRE players. Min deposit £5. Paypal & certain deposit & bet types excluded. Winning bets paid in cash at normal price. Enhanced odds paid in £5 free bets credited within 24 hrs, valid for 4 days, stake not returned, restrictions apply. Losing £5 free bet excludes Connect customers. T&Cs apply.
North Group
There are three matches taking place in the North Group on Thursday evening. The big one probably comes from Trent Bridge where the defending champions Nottinghamshire play host to the form team in the group and their local rivals Derbyshire. In the other matches both Leicestershire and Birmingham Bears need to win when they do battle at Grace Road and Durham will look to continue their good form when they host Northamptonshire, who even at this stage are not going to qualify for the last eight.
South Group
This is the group where the TV focus lies. The match comes from Canterbury where Kent will be looking to maintain their push for the quarter finals when they host an Essex side who may well need snookers to qualify for the latter stages already but who certainly can’t afford to lose again. Elsewhere Middlesex host Sussex at Lord’s with the visitors looking to make up for their defeat on Wednesday evening.
[the_ad_group id=”3624″]
TV Match Betting
I’m expecting the boundaries to be peppered when Kent play host to Essex in front of the TV cameras. We’ve seen all season that the boundaries are in range at Canterbury and with the weather being back to perfect I’m expecting the ball to do some travelling. Kent have a great batting line up but their bowling is very leaky. Essex might be slightly better with the ball but not to any great extent. Essex are always a batsman light in this competition but at some point the shackles will get released and it could be against this attack that it happens. Generally in good weather most T20 matches on a small ground will have 40 boundaries in it or more. I’m expecting this one too as well.
James Foster comes into the Essex squad for this game in place of Tom Westley which means that there is a spot available at number three. I’m hoping that spot will be filled by Ravi Bopara and if that is the case the 6/1 on the England man top scoring looks decent enough to me. To be fair Bopara took an age to get going in this competition but he looked good last time out against Hampshire and with more time to play himself in he can produce a decent score.
Other Matches
Durham have looked good throughout this competition and if it wasn’t for Yorkshire they would be unbeaten in it. I expect their win tally to go up a notch when they take on Northamptonshire though. Northants have lost six matches and you don’t qualify from there and as such Rory Kleinveldt is out of their squad, if you believe squad lists that are announced these days. Northants can’t stop haemorrhaging runs and Durham are pretty good with the ball. It’s a combination that should equate to a home win.
I’m expecting a highish scoring match at Grace Road. I say that because you wouldn’t back the Birmingham Bears bowling attack to go for less than 10 an over right now. It is shipping runs at a crazy rate and Leicestershire definitely have the firepower to get after it. That works the other way though. While Birmingham can’t stem the flow of runs they are pounding them out themselves. There have been some low scoring matches on this ground this season but two of them involved Lancashire and Derbyshire who have gun attacks. The one that was full of runs came against Nottinghamshire who aren’t great with the ball so I fancy this one to play out to that pattern rather than the norm. This can have over 319.5 runs.
Finally I can’t help but take Derbyshire again. They have been good to me at decent prices a couple of times this last week or so and they remain a bonkers price to see off an overrated Nottinghamshire. If the seamers can keep the Notts openers quiet they will have half the battle won. Derbyshire lost their opening four matches when they couldn’t score a run between them but they are batting stronger now and have a great attack. Nottinghamshire are probably favourites at home but Derbyshire at 13/8 is the shout here.
Tips
Back Kent vs Essex – Over 39.5 boundaries for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with William Hill
WON – Back R.Bopara Top Essex Batsman for a 1/10 stake at 7.00 with William Hill
Back them here:
Back Leicestershire vs Birmingham Bears – Over 319.5 runs for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with TLCBet
Back it here:
Back Derbyshire to beat Nottinghamshire for a 4/10 stake at 2.63 with Coral
Back them here:
WON – Back Durham to beat Northamptonshire for a 4/10 stake at 1.73 with Spreadex
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2018
