The LV= County Championship returns on Sunday to break up the Vitality Blast action and it does so with the penultimate round of matches in the four day competition on what looks set up to be an exciting and dramatic week of red ball cricket.
The three groups are all pretty tightly packed so there are going to be some disappointed teams at the end of the week. The top qualify for Division One from each group so there are some big matches in this round of games.
Group 1
This might be the tightest group of the lot with just nine points separating the top four going into the week. Two of those sides meet at Edgbaston where the current table toppers Warwickshire take on the fourth placed side Durham in a match that losing can’t really be an option for either. The other match sees the third placed Nottinghamshire welcoming Derbyshire to Trent Bridge and with Essex not playing this week the current T20 champions will know that a win in this match will mean that they control their own destiny next week.
Group 2
Five sides are deep in the mix for a top two spot in Group 2 heading into the week. Somerset are in control of things with a 10 point lead at the top and they will be all but guaranteed a top two spot if they can beat Leicestershire, who will fire themselves right into qualifying contention if they can win this match. Hampshire and Surrey sit one point and eight points away from the top two respectively so their clash at the Ageas Bowl couldn’t be bigger, with the winner likely to control their path next week and the losers likely to miss out on a top two spot.
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Group 3
Lancashire are the team who seized top spot in the first stage of this competition in Group 3 and they have the chance to near enough secure their top two finish when they welcome Kent to Old Trafford. That isn’t the biggest match in this group though. That comes at Wantage Road where Northamptonshire host Yorkshire in a battle of third against second with the winner knowing they are a win next week away from moving into the group to compete for the title. The other match comes from Hove where the two sides struggling with Covid-19 issues meet when Sussex host a Glamorgan side who could yet push for a top two spot themselves if one of the current top two slip up this week.
Betting
I’m not going to get heavily involved in this round of matches for a couple of reasons. The first of those is the fact that the forecast isn’t great for the early part of the week so we might need to dodge some rain. The other reason is because these sides haven’t had much of a chance to practice their red ball skills given that they were playing T20 cricket as recently as Friday evening. Neither of those are ideal but there is a price which stands out and which I can’t ignore.
That is for Glamorgan to beat Sussex. Both these sides are having isolation and Covid-19 tracing issues at the minute but I think Sussex have drawn the short straw with them with the likes of Tom Haines, Ollie Robinson and Delray Rawlins among others. The same issue has got Marnus Labuschagne and Michael Neser out for Glamorgan but they have moved to get Colin Ingram to play a red ball game for this week and have a decent enough bowling attack without Neser to be competitive. Sussex have chosen to name three debutants in their squad for this week and don’t have anything to play for here so with Glamorgan having much more on the line the 11/10 they come out on top, without the draw in play, looks a solid option to me.
Tips
Back Glamorgan to beat Sussex (DNB) for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Betfair
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