There is one spot left at the Vitality Blast Finals Day next month and it is due to be filled on Sunday afternoon when Somerset take on the defending champions Nottinghamshire in front of a packed house in Taunton.
Somerset made it into this quarter final courtesy of winning the South Group while Nottinghamshire had to come through a do or die contest against Yorkshire to finish as fourth best in the North Group.
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Somerset
There is a clear argument to be made for Somerset being the team of the group stages. They have won matches at home and they have won them on the road. They have won them batting first and they are a wonderful chasing side as well so there aren’t many boxes they haven’t got covered which really should fill them with confidence heading into this quarter final.
Somerset have a really powerful batting line up with the lower order, or finishers, in particular being strong. What often goes unnoticed is the quality of their bowling attack and it is no surprise that they came on again when Jerome Taylor arrived. They are an attack which knows their own conditions very well which is no bad thing.
Nottinghamshire
It may be that having played a knockout game on the road in this competition already actually helps Nottinghamshire. The way they went about their business and took Yorkshire apart in that match will certainly have given them a lot of confidence and they will be eager to get back to Finals Day to defend their title so they won’t lack for motivation.
Perhaps the biggest thing in the favour of Nottinghamshire heading into this quarter final is their knowledge that they can perform on the big occasion. We’ve seen a few sides already in these quarter finals fail to handle the occasion but you sense Nottinghamshire won’t be one of those. They can match Somerset for power and probably edge them with the ball.
Team News
Somerset remain without Tim Groenewald who has missed much of the competition with a groin injury. Captain Lewis Gregory will be put through his paces ahead of the match but I would imagine it is unlikely that he won’t be risked.
Nottinghamshire will be without Jake Ball who has been ruled out of the remainder of the season. Stuart Broad has not been released by England for the match either while new signing Ben Slater is ineligible.
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Betting
Unfortunately the weather forecast for this match is worse than terrible. There is a reserve day for the match but the umpires will do what they can to get the game done on Sunday even if that means a shortened overs match so this is a tough game to bet on. I’m just going to take a top batsman that would cover a reduced overs or a full game on the reserve day. If the match does go to Monday and markets come up I’ll post a few bets up on our Twitter feed so keep an eye out for those.
Corey Anderson is going to be a big player for Somerset in this match. He has big match experience and he is good enough with the bat to play a rebuilding innings if the situation needs it and obviously we all know him for the power that he has. If there is a shortened game he’ll be utilised up the order but in a full game he’ll get enough time at the crease on these small boundaries to score well. At 5/1 he looks like the pick for the top Somerset batsman.
Monday Update
As I thought the match was washed out on Sunday and to be fair to the bookmakers most have stuck all their markets up for the game on Monday and there are two bets that I like in addition to the Corey Anderson bet. The first of those is over 13.5 sixes. We know the boundaries here are pretty small and we also know there is power and batting depth in both of these sides. I think this is going to be a tough ask for the bowlers. While there is no rain around on Monday, the outfield is still likely to be juicy from the sheer amount of rain that fell on Sunday so bowlers could have a tough time gripping the ball therefore the batsmen could get some freebies to hit. I expect a high scoring game anyway and conditions may well dictate that we get more than 13.5 sixes.
The other bet I like now we know the match will be a full 20 overs is the performance of Somerset captain Lewis Gregory. The extra day is likely to ensure he is fit to play and I expect him to have a big impression on this quarter final. His performance line is 38.5 which I think he’ll cover. He’ll bowl four overs at the key times in the innings and we saw in the game against Kent a couple of weeks ago how brutal he can be with the bat. He’ll field in key positions as captain too and that should all see him whizz past 38.5pts whether it is with a good game in any discipline or a combination of the three scoring methods.
Tips
Back C.Anderson Top Somerset Batsman for a 2/10 stake at 6.00 with BetVictor
Back him here:
WON – Back Over 13.5 sixes for a 4/10 stake at 1.90 with LeoVegas
Back it here:
WON – Back L.Gregory’s Performance – Over 38.5pts for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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