There is another night of action in the Vitality Blast on Wednesday evening when three matches take place across the top groups where the tables are starting to get very bunched up as we head slowly towards the midway point in the campaign.
We haven’t had a televised match since Saturday evening but that is rectified here as one of the three matches is live on the Sky channels while the other two matches can be watched on the excellent streams supplied by the counties. We’ll begin the preview with the televised game even though it is the later start.
Leicestershire vs Birmingham Bears (18.45)
The televised action comes from Grace Road where Leicestershire continues their search for a first win in the North Group when they play host to the side who have flown to the top of the section in the Birmingham Bears.
Leicestershire have been involved in some high scoring crackers so far in this campaign and come into the match off the back of a game at Yorkshire where they nearly chased down 240. Birmingham Bears haven’t been short of runs either and with the wicket at Grace Road being like a road I’m expecting the runs to keep on flowing here. You can get the runs line at 321.5 here which when you consider the two matches here so far have had 395 runs and 338, that line feels a little on the low side, especially with the way this Leicestershire attack keeps conceding runs.
A lot of those runs come at the death of the innings which makes me think that Carlos Brathwaite should enjoy his day out here with the bat and the ball, as he has done for much of the campaign so far. He has a performance line in this match of 33.5 which he has covered with the ball alone in his last three matches, taking two wickets in each. He has also scored 44, 16 and 19* so he is contributing with the bat and now that he looks to have found his feet I expect him to cover that target once again.
I’ll also have a small play on Rishi Patel to be the leading Leicestershire batsman in this game. He shouldn’t have a genuine chance of top scoring here given the form of Josh Inglis and Colin Ackermann but Chris Woakes and Tim Bresnan might account for them and then it could be down to Patel to come in around five and get the scoring going again. He top scored for Leicestershire on this ground against Derbyshire earlier in the season so he has got previous at it and now that he’s gone up a spot in the order and has shown he can play the knock it around innings or the give it a biff knock, the 13/1 on him top scoring looks a little big.
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Worcestershire vs Yorkshire (17.30)
The other match in the North Group on Wednesday evening comes from New Road where it will be interesting to see how Yorkshire adapt to the slower pitches and outfield when they go up against an unbeaten Worcestershire side.
Worcestershire have shown they can tough it out in these conditions as well as prosper elsewhere on their travels but we’ve not really seen Yorkshire play on a tricky wicket. We’ve seen them plunder lots of runs but conditions here might not suit that sort of batting. Even when they did smash a load of runs their attack has leaked plenty too. My gut tells me Yorkshire might find a way to score in this match and if they do they probably win it but I’m not certain enough to follow that feeling with a bet.
Glamorgan vs Kent (18.30)
There is one match in the South Group on the evening as well and that comes from Sophia Gardens in Cardiff where Glamorgan will look to bounce back from their defeat at Surrey on Monday evening when they host a Kent side who got thrashed by Somerset on Tuesday evening.
Clearly the team that bounces back from their defeat the best will probably come out on top here but there is no way of knowing who that will be in advance. I suspect it might be Glamorgan because they’ve had the extra day to get over the defeat but Kent have got Zak Crawley and Sam Billings back here and look stronger for it as a result. I’m leaning towards Glamorgan here, especially with Marnus Labaschagne in the form he’s in but Kent look a bit stronger now and I don’t really want to oppose them.
Tips
Back Leicestershire vs Birmingham Bears – Over 321.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back C.Brathwaite’s Performance – Over 33.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back R.Patel Top Leicestershire Batsman for a 1/10 stake at 14.00 with Betfair
Back him here:
