The last three quarter finals of the Vitality Blast take place on Friday evening with the pick of them being the one between the South Group winners Somerset and the fourth placed team from the North Group in Nottinghamshire.
These two battle it out at Taunton for a place at finals day and with both sides knowing how to win this tournament both teams will feel that they will have a real shot at glory should they come out on top here which makes for a very exciting game of cricket.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Main Event, Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Action channels with the brief build-up beginning on the latter shortly before the 6.30pm start.
Somerset
Somerset head into this quarter final off the back of the best ever group showing in the Vitality Blast. No team have won 12 matches in the group stage before but that is what Somerset achieved and now they will hope there is one more win in them to get them to finals day. They will have already seen one group winner bow out in the quarter final and they will be eager to make sure that they don’t go the same way in this match.
Somerset absolutely demolished Derbyshire in the quarter final on this ground a year ago so that will give them a lot of belief that they can come through this match. If there is a concern for Somerset it is that they are beginning to run out of bowlers with Peter Siddle now gone and Roelof van der Merwe injured but what they might lack in a strained bowling attack they more than make up for with power when it comes to the bat in hand.
Nottinghamshire
I think it is fair to say that Nottinghamshire have not been the force they used to be in this competition this season but they did win their final group game when it really mattered to make it into this quarter final. I don’t think we could say that they have a free hit in this match because the prize on offer is so big but they do head into it as the underdogs and it might be that they are suited better by that position rather than in some previous quarter finals where the pressure has definitely got to them.
Nottinghamshire also have to cope without their gun overseas bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi for this match after he has left to go back to Pakistan for international commitments. You sense that with Ben Duckett away with England as well that someone in the top three for Nottinghamshire are going to need to go big if they are going to win this match, or they are going to need one of the spinners to have a night out.
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Key Players
Will Smeed has been in excellent form in the group stage and the way he scores if he gets in and gets going he has the potential to either take the game away from Nottinghamshire or break the back of any run chase.
Alex Hales hasn’t been his destructive best this season but big players tend to step up on big occasions and the England opener has the chance to remind everyone how good he is here. He has ideal conditions to go big.
Betting
If the Nottinghamshire we usually see in this tournament show up here then we could be in for a classic quarter final, one which should be very high scoring with two teams who bat deep and go big when the chance arises. I would make Somerset favourites but we saw on Thursday evening how group stage form is irrelevant and I wouldn’t really want to get involved in the match outcome here because no total is safe on this ground.
The bet that I do like is for there to be more than 13.5 sixes. We saw on Sunday night how hard the square is down at Taunton at the minute and how good the pitches are and we know how small the ground is compared to the power that is possessed within these two sides. These two teams know what it takes to win quarter finals so there isn’t going to be any nerves or anything so I’m expecting the best of both and if we get it that sixes line is nowhere near high enough.
Tips
Back Over 13.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Boylesports
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