The opening day of the Vitality Blast sees seven matches taking place across the three groups as the English domestic season finally gets the chance to turn its hand to the white ball more than a month after the competition was originally scheduled to begin.
The competition starts with a televised match which is the last of the seven to begin, while the majority of the others are going to be live streamed on the website of the home county so there is no need to miss much of the action.
North Group
We have a full set of matches in the North Group on Thursday with the first of them coming in the afternoon when the Durham Jets play host to a Lancashire Lightning side who will be missing some key players. Later in the day Leicestershire will begin their quest for another T20 title when they get to play Derbyshire on their home ground even though it is an away match for them. The televised match comes in this group too and it is from Headingley where Yorkshire host the pre-tournament favourites Nottinghamshire.
Central Group
Two matches take place in the Central Group on Thursday with one in the afternoon and one in the evening. The afternoon match sees the twice former champions Northamptonshire going up against Gloucestershire down at Bristol while the other match deeper into the evening sees the action heading into Wales when Glamorgan host the 2018 winners and beaten finalists last season Worcestershire, a side who will be without Pat Brown which could be significant.
South Group
There are also a pair of matches in the South Group, both of which come in the afternoon as four teams get their campaigns up and running in competitive looking matches. Essex begin their title defence when they take on a weakened Middlesex outfit at Chelmsford. The other match comes from Canterbury where two former winners of this tournament meet each other as Kent and Hampshire go at it for an early two points to their name.
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TV Match Betting
Unfortunately we are in the middle of some inclement weather going through the UK at the minute and there is a good chance that the TV match will be impacted if not in full then certainly at some point which is disappointing because Joe Root has been made available for Yorkshire and the likes of Alex Hales and Ben Duckett will be on show for Nottinghamshire. It might be that there is some play but shortened matches mean most markets will get voided so although I want to get involved in the game we have four weeks of action so I’ll save it and play matches less likely to be affected.
Other Match Betting
It doesn’t look a whole lot better across the country on the weather front but if we are going to see play anywhere we will see it at Leicester where Derbyshire take on Leicestershire and having taken the Falcons outright I’m happy enough to side with them in this match even though it is an away game for them. It would be more of a concern that this match was being played at their opponents ground if fans were there but they’re not which is a help.
Both these teams have started the season well in the Bob Willis Trophy but a lot of the players in form for Leicestershire don’t play this format, or in the case of Ben Slater don’t play for them anymore. That isn’t the case for Derbyshire. They have kept near enough the same squad for their four day matches as they have for this one. They have been on fire in that competition and were semi-finalists in this one last year. Leicestershire have a good reputation in this event but I can’t help but think that Mark Cosgrove is a big loss for them – in more ways than one. Derbyshire are ticking along nicely enough to make me think that the 10/11 on them winning is a good thing here.
Tips
VOID – Back Derbyshire to beat Leicestershire for a 3/10 stake at 1.90 with Betfair
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