Although we are into the T20 season in the county grind, there is one Specsavers County Championship match taking place this week as Gloucestershire take on Worcestershire in Division Two of the competition.
The results last week seriously tightened up this division and when the competition returns from the T20 break we are going to have quite some race for promotion from the second tier. Both these teams can enhance their possibilities with a win here.
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire were involved in one of the best finishes of the season last week when they got home against Leicestershire in the final over of the match. That moved the Bristol based side to within 10pts of the top three and they will move into that promotion position with a reasonable week here. With the weather set fare you would think they will have the chance to get the bonus points required for a real tilt at promotion.
I mentioned last week how they need to find their batting form if they are going to go on and achieve promotion and they found that even though they were missing one or two players. Since then they have been all over Glamorgan in a T20 match only to see the rain put paid to their bid to win that showdown. All of a sudden there are signs of Gloucestershire hitting top form which will please them.
Worcestershire
I’m sure everyone will agree that this has been a shocking campaign for Worcestershire so far. Four defeats from nine matches in the County Championship is not what they wanted after relegation last season. They went into this campaign as one of the favourites to win promotion, and when they won their opening two matches they had almost been given one of the three promotion spots, but no win in seven since then has them second from bottom.
Although they sit in ninth place in the table, they are only 29pts off the promotion places so a big win here would put them right back in the mix when it comes to pushing for a spot in the first division come the end of the campaign. On the flip side of that you would have to say they are in the last chance saloon. They need to find some form with the bat. They have only picked up 16 batting points all summer which is not going to get the job done.
New customers, bet £/€20 on the Exchange and if your first bet loses, we’ll refund you £/€20 in Cash. T&Cs apply. 18+|Gamble Aware.
Team News
Gloucestershire will have James Bracey back from England Lions duty while David Payne comes back too having missed the victory over Leicestershire last week. Gareth Roderick is another to come in to the side.
Worcestershire have Wayne Parnell back for this match after he was fit enough to feature in the T20 on Thursday night. Moeen Ali was released for that game by England but he has not been allowed to play here with England in action on Wednesday.
Betting
Worcestershire are in a right rut at the minute in four day cricket but I just wonder if they will take confidence from that win in the T20 on Thursday night and use it to revive their four day hopes here. Gloucestershire had an excellent win over Leicestershire last week but they could have been more ruthless with it and that could be a slight concern for them going into this match.
If you take form and confidence out of the equation, I don’t think there’s a whole lot between these two sides and if anything Worcestershire are probably better man for man. It is taking a bit of a leap of faith that Worcestershire perk up but there is no doubt they have the batting to be doing better than they are and if a bit of 20 over slap and tickle has cleared their minds then they are a big price to win this one.
Tips
Back Worcestershire to beat Gloucestershire for a 4/10 stake at 2.20 with BetVictor
Back them here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2019
