The second round of matches in the LV= County Championship begin on Thursday and after an entertaining opening week of the campaign which a number of teams got impacted by the snow, the 18 counties will be hoping for better weather and a great outcome this week.
There are only 10 group matches in this first phase of the competition so each one is going to count which should make for some competitive cricket. All the counties are live streaming their matches so we don’t need to miss a ball of any of them.
Group 1
The champions Essex were held to a draw last week so they will be looking for their first win of the season when they host a Durham side who also drew their opening game. Essex were held by Worcestershire while Durham couldn’t get the better of Nottinghamshire. In fact, all six sides in this division drew last week so there is the chance for all of them to make a move this week. The other two matches sees Derbyshire hosting Worcestershire and Nottinghamshire welcoming Warwickshire to Trent Bridge.
Group 2
Somerset were the favourites going into the season and they produced a miracle victory at Lord’s last week, coming from miles back to see off Middlesex. They now host Gloucestershire in the opening match of the season at Taunton. Gloucestershire won their opening match of the campaign so the winner of that one will end the week on top of the table. Hampshire were the other winner from the opening week and they’ll go in search of two wins from two when they host Middlesex at the Ageas Bowl. The other match sees Surrey hosting Leicestershire at The Oval.
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Group 3
This is another group where all six teams were held to draws last week so it might be that the table properly takes shape this week. That means we have three big matches on show with the pick of them on paper being the top two at present meeting at Old Trafford as Lancashire host Northamptonshire. The highlight game though could well be the one from Canterbury where Kent take on an injury ravaged Yorkshire. The other match sees Glamorgan playing host to Sussex down at Cardiff.
Betting
I’ll go with the one bet for these matches while we wait for the squads to settle down and the weather to improve a little bit. That comes in the form of Kent to beat Yorkshire. Kent played pretty well in their draw with Northamptonshire last week but couldn’t get through the partnership between Vasconcelos and Keogh but they batted very well, as you would expect with talent such as Zak Crawley, Jordan Cox, Daniel Bell-Drummond and Joe Denly in their ranks. They have Heino Kuhn back in their ranks this week too.
Yorkshire didn’t play very well last week and had it not snowed over the final two days they might well have lost to Glamorgan. While their performance would have been a huge concern, the injuries to Ben Coad and Matt Fisher would have been even more so as Yorkshire aren’t blessed in the seam bowling department right now. Sam Billings aside, Kent look at full strength this week and off the back of an encouraging week against a weakened opponent, I like them to come out on top here.
Tips
Back Kent to beat Yorkshire (DNB) for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with Betway
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