There is another round of matches in the Vitality Blast on Friday with a full set of fixtures taking place as we head closer towards the conclusion of the group stage of the competition at the end of next weekend.
The women’s international gets the TV treatment on Friday so we are once again left with the county streams for these matches but on a night which could be a defining one they will be well worth watching.
North Group
The big match in the North Group on Friday evening comes from Trent Bridge where the top two in the table meet when the defending champions Nottinghamshire go up against Yorkshire. Nottinghamshire will not only secure a quarter final place with a win here but a home clash in the last eight too. The other important match in this group sees third placed Worcestershire taking on a Birmingham Bears side who now sit outside the top four and needing to win to get back in. Durham are the team who occupy fourth spot and if they are going to remain in control of their own destiny they must beat Derbyshire at the Riverside. The other match sees Lancashire hosting Northamptonshire in a match that will be curtains for whoever loses it.
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South Group
The stakes are pretty high in the South Group as well with six sides all fighting it out for the four qualifying places. Two of those teams meet down at The Oval when the leaders Kent take on Surrey who are playing their penultimate match of the campaign and will basically be sitting ducks if they don’t come out on top in this one. Somerset are in a rich vein of form which they will be looking to continue when they head to the Ageas Bowl to take a Hampshire side whose campaign has never got going. Sussex occupy the final qualifying spot at the minute but they will be joined on 13 points if they are beaten by Essex at Hove. The other match is the early start at Cheltenham where Gloucestershire host Middlesex in a must win game for the home side.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets over the course of Friday evening with the first of those seeing Northamptonshire beating Lancashire. Lancashire were on a downtrend when the break for the Championship came anyway but since then they have lost Saqid Mahmood and Matt Parkinson so when you add in Liam Livingstone and Jos Buttler who were originally away with England you could argue that Lancashire are without their four most important players. Northamptonshire have escaped England call ups in both squads and now that they can’t make Division One of the Championship they are likely to be all in for their three remaining Blast matches knowing that if they win them all they will be in the top four. They were just starting to get their act together before the break and look to have an ideal chance of picking up where they left off here. They look massively overpriced given the Lancashire absentees.
Kent have already beaten Surrey this season and while they have lost Zak Crawley to the second England ODI squad they were without him at the beginning of the competition and coped fine so while his absence isn’t ideal there is enough to suggest they have cover for it. The same might not be able to be said about Surrey who were already without the Curran brothers and Jason Roy to England duty and now Will Jacks is away with England as well. If that wasn’t enough Kyle Jamieson and Hashim Amla picked up injuries in the Championship game with Hampshire and Ollie Pope remains out injured too so this is very much a second string Surrey side that will be going out for this one. Surrey have never lacked for depth but Kent are one of the better T20 sides and I expect them to prove that here.
Tips
Back Northamptonshire to beat Lancashire for a 3/10 stake at 2.38 with BetVictor
Back them here:
Back Kent to beat Surrey for a 3/10 stake at 1.73 with Coral
Back them here:
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