The first team through to the knockout stage of The Hundred will be determined on Friday night when two of the better sides in the competition so far meet at Trent Bridge when the Trent Rockets host the Birmingham Phoenix.
Top spot in the table is the reward for the winner of this one and it comes with the caveat that whoever it is that wins will be guaranteed a place in the Eliminator and will be in control of their own destiny when it comes to qualifying automatically for the final.
Trent Rockets
The Trent Rockets were the early trailblazers in the competition this season but they have lost two of their last three matches and slid down to third place in the table as a result. They have this match and one more after it so they are still in an excellent position to push on and qualify either for the semi-final or straight through to the final. Both those matches are at Trent Bridge where they have won both matches so far which will give them some confidence.
The Rockets have had to do with a little bit of upheaval from a player point of view from the departure of Joe Root to England duty to the eventual arrival of Wahab Riaz and now they will need to cope without the Pakistan international as he is out with injury. The other thing that has impacted them has been on away pitches their predominantly spin and pace off bowling style hasn’t been as effective and they’ve been found out on a couple of occasions.
Birmingham Phoenix
At the beginning of the tournament the Birmingham Phoenix boasted the strongest squad in the competition but the departure of Moeen Ali to England duty has left them slightly exposed for this match in particular. The Phoenix have won four matches this season, all of which was on their home ground at Edgbaston, while their two away matches have seen them beaten on both occasions so they need to arrest that record a little bit here.
Birmingham have largely won their matches with brute force with the bat which the wickets at Edgbaston have allowed them to do that. They will be hoping that we get one of the famous Trent Bridge wickets which allows them to do likewise but if not they will need to adjust their game and it will be interesting to see if they have that in their locker. It will also be interesting to see how they go with Liam Livingstone as captain.
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Key Men
You get the impression that the key battle as far as opening the game up for the Trent Rockets is Alex Hales against Adam Milne. These two were teammates for the Sydney Thunder last winter so they will know all about each other. If Hales can win that battle the Rockets will be ready for lift off.
Liam Livingstone has taken on the captaincy responsibility and I would imagine he will move up to three in the batting order as well so he is going to need to have a good game both in the field and with the bat in hand if the Phoenix are to come out on top here.
Betting
Trent Bridge hasn’t hosted a cricket match since the Test match last week so there should be no reason why this match will be played on a used pitch, especially as they are at home again in a couple of days after this one so I’m expecting a fresh pitch, which at Trent Bridge usually means lots of runs and lots of big hits. We saw that in no uncertain terms when England played Pakistan here in a T20 last month and I expect to see it again.
Liam Livingstone smashed a century in defeat in that match so he will have plenty of good memories of this ground but there are plenty of other big hitters on show in this match such as Alex Hales, D’Arcy Short, Finn Allen, Will Smeed and even someone like Chris Benjamin who is showing his worth with the bat too. I’m surprised the sixes line is 11.5 for this one but I’m happy to take the over especially at odds against.
Tips
Back Over 11.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with William Hill
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