There is one night left in the Vitality Blast before a break for a week to bring the County Championship up to the correct stage. That takes place on Friday evening when a full round of matches take place across both the groups.
With the international action having a pause on Friday we have one match on TV to enjoy and if you are not of a Lancashire or a Yorkshire persuasion all the other matches will be shown live on the streams that the counties provide.
North Group
It is a big night in the North Group and that is particularly the case for the leaders Nottinghamshire. They head to Edgbaston to take on the third placed side Birmingham Bears knowing a win would all but secure their top four spot and put them in charge to secure a home quarter final. Birmingham winning that opens top spot up over the remaining three matches. Yorkshire have a chance to deal a huge blow in the qualifying hopes of Lancashire in the TV game when the two sides meet at Headingley. Elsewhere in the group Durham will look to preserve their top four spot when they welcome Leicestershire to the Riverside while the other match sees Derbyshire hosting Worcestershire in a match the Rapids really need to win.
South Group
Given the weather problems that the South Group has entailed over the course of the last couple of weeks things are nicely bunched in this section. The biggest match of the night is the one at Canterbury where second placed Kent host the leaders Surrey with the winners knowing they will be in control of their own destiny both to qualify and get a home quarter final. Gloucestershire passed up the chance to go to the top of the table on Thursday evening when they were beaten by Somerset but they can keep pace with the top two when they head to Hampshire on Friday evening. Somerset sit in fourth spot after that win and they host Middlesex at Taunton looking to preserve that position while Sussex dropped out of the top four with a defeat at Lord’s on Thursday evening and will be eager to win on their trip to Cardiff when they face a Glamorgan side who are having issues with Covid-19 just like the Sharks.
Special Offer
Open up a BetVictor account and bet £5 to get £30 in bonuses! Click the image below for this standout new account offer! New accounts only. 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Responsibly
18+ New Customers only. Deposit, opt in and place a £5 qualifying bet at odds of 2.00 or greater within 7 days of opening a new account; excludes cashed out bets. Receive 2x £10 Free Sports Bets, valid on set events only at odds 2.00 or greater, expires in 7 days. Plus a £10 Game Show Bonus, selected games, wager 40x to withdraw a max of £250. T&Cs Apply. Please Gamble Responsibly.
TV Match Betting
I’ll go with one bet in the TV match as Yorkshire host Lancashire at Headingley where I’m expecting to see a number of boundaries. Headingley has been a high scoring group this season and I don’t expect that to change with two sides eager to not just beat the other but to do a decent enough job on them. In three of the five completed matches here the first innings score has been more than 190 and in another it was above 170.
The reason for that as I keep saying whenever I bet on a match at Headingley is since the new stand was built the boundary has come in plenty and with Headingley using those hybrid pitches for white ball cricket we know the pitch is going to be good for batting. Yorkshire’s attack is very light at the minute and although they are without a load of batsmen it is still their strength despite their dismal effort at Edgbaston earlier in the week. I fancy over 40.5 boundaries here.
Other Match Betting
I came unstuck taking the sixes at Edgbaston earlier in the week but that was just a freakily bad batting performance from Yorkshire who offered absolutely nothing in terms of technique or nous. I don’t expect that from a Nottinghamshire side who are in decent form and who hit all the way down. They don’t just hit on small boundaries, their batsmen can clear most ropes so the fact they are playing at Edgbaston where there will be a small boundary offers up plenty of encouragement.
The sixes line for this match between the Birmingham Bears and Nottinghamshire is 11.5 which looks low to me. Nottinghamshire have three men in double figures for sixes this season while the likes of Ben Duckett and Peter Trego can smack a decent ball. Both teams have left handers in their top five which means they can attack the short boundary from each end which makes me happy to take the over here.
Tips
Back Yorkshire vs Lancashire – Over 40.5 boundaries for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
Back it here:
Back Birmingham Bears vs Nottinghamshire – Over 11.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2021
