The second quarter final of the Vitality Blast takes place on Wednesday evening as the North Group winners Nottinghamshire host the team who finished fourth in the South Group in Hampshire at Trent Bridge.
Nottinghamshire were clearly the better of the two sides in the first stage of the competition but that was five weeks ago and Hampshire will be hoping that the time since then has levelled the teams up a little. A spot in finals day at Edgbaston is the prize for the winners.
Where to watch
Although the Test match is getting the TV treatment on Wednesday, this match has been put back to a 7pm start which means it can be shown in full on the Sky Sports Cricket channel. The build-up begins as soon as the reflections on the action at Headingley conclude.
Nottinghamshire
The pre-tournament favourites and title holders have made it through to the quarter final once again and have topped the group and secured a home quarter final for the tenth time in 12 seasons. That is pretty incredible in itself but the fact they have won eight of those matches suggests they are worthy favourites to make finals day. There is always a caveat to these things though and that comes in the fact that the two home quarter finals they have lost were both to a certain Hampshire.
One of the reasons why Nottinghamshire have been so good this season is their spin trio of Calvin Harrison, Samit Patel and Matt Carter, each of whom were involved in The Hundred recently. They have offset the losses of the likes of Dan Christian, Imad Wasim and Harry Gurney from the bowling attack in recent seasons. Nottinghamshire also have a powerful top three and a couple of smart cookies in the middle order to ensure they are strong in all departments.
Hampshire
Hampshire will be hoping that the schedule hasn’t gone against them in this quarter final. If this match had taken place anywhere remotely close to the group stages they would have been carrying a lot of confidence and momentum into the match with them after they won their last five matches to sneak into fourth place in the South Group on the final day of the first phase. In terms of carrying form on from there though that might mean precious little as it was five or so weeks ago.
The good thing for Hampshire is that they have performed creditably in the Royal London One Day Cup and their big players all performed with distinction in The Hundred. There are a couple of survivors from those wins at Trent Bridge in the past so they will make the rest of the squad believe they can win here. Hampshire need their backup bowlers to be right on it here and then if their key batsmen can fire they’ve got a chance.
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Team News
Nottinghamshire remain without Dan Christian so Dane Paterson is their only overseas player on show in this match. Steven Mullaney skippers a side which has Alex Hales, Samit Patel, Joe Clarke and Ben Duckett all returning from a good campaign in The Hundred.
Hampshire will be without Colin de Grandhomme for this match as he is on tour with New Zealand so Kyle Abbott will be the second overseas player. Liam Dawson and Chris Wood have been passed fit after their injuries during The Hundred. D’Arcy Short plays his final match for the Hawks here on a ground which has been home for him for the last three weeks.
Betting
A number of the Nottinghamshire batsmen seemed to lose form the longer The Hundred went on while players like Calvin Harrison ended up warming the bench or having matches rained off so Nottinghamshire might be a little rusty here. As a Hampshire fan going to the game I hope that is the case at least. I don’t fancy backing the home side at the prices and it might be that at some point on Wednesday, Hampshire drift to a backable price, although that might just be the supporter in me talking. I’ll take a different bet on Wednesday though.
I get the impression D’Arcy Short is going to be a big player for Hampshire in this match. As a left-hander not only can he connect to that short boundary much easier but he can also negate the threat of Samit Patel first up. When he played for Durham on this ground a couple of seasons ago he made 36 from 25 balls and took two wickets. The other reason why Short is a big player for Hampshire is he’ll have been facing Patel, Matt Carter and Steven Mullaney in the nets over the last month as they were teammates in The Hundred. To be fair, the form of the Australian fizzled out the longer The Hundred went on but some of that was down to him batting in the middle order which was a braindead idea. As an opener he made scores of 51 and 69, the first of those on this ground. Short finished the group stage with scores of 30, 35 and a 30-ball 69 so he is a big player for Hampshire and through bat and ball I expect him to achieve his performance target of 36.5pts.
Tips
Back D.Short’s Performance – Over 36.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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