We have another double header of action in The Hundred on Saturday and it gets going at Edgbaston where the tournament heads for the first time this season as the Birmingham Phoenix take on the Southern Brave.
These two met in the first final of this competition in 2021 which the Brave won and both will be looking to pick up a win which would send them closer to getting into the final this time around as well.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the BBC 2 and Sky Sports Cricket channels with the build-up to the match beginning at 2pm ahead of the first ball at 2.30pm.
Birmingham Phoenix
The Birmingham Phoenix have had to do it the hard way to open up their competition. With Edgbaston being used for the final Test match between England and West Indies they have had to play their opening three matches on their travels but the fact that they have won two of them after a disastrous start at The Oval where they made a real mess of their batting effort, means that they are in a good position to push on and finish in the top three.
The Phoenix haven’t done anything amazing in their two victories but they have won both matches with a little in hand and look to be building confidence ahead of their first home game. They generally play Edgbaston pretty well, knowing the parts of the ground to go after and which bowlers to bowl where. With Jamie Smith due back into the side at some point there is no reason why Birmingham can’t push on and be real contenders here.
Southern Brave
The inaugural champions have won two of their first three and will begin the day sat third in the table. They are one of the five teams who have logged four points on the board and for a few hours at least a win here will take them to the top of the table. One thing they will need to do is put in a convincing showing on the road. They play the huge expanses of the Utilita Bowl very well indeed but they don’t look quite the same side on their travels.
Their latest win came against the Manchester Originals in a match they were expected to dominate and duly did and the fact that they came out on top without Jofra Archer bodes very well for the Brave if they can find their best cricket on their travels. Their batting looks in decent order and that can’t be said about all of the teams in this competition. If their batting stays above par then they are going to go well because their bowling looks up there with the best in the tournament.
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Key Players
Liam Livingstone has threatened to break out with the bat in this tournament but hasn’t quite gone through and achieved the big score that has been there for him. Edgbaston is nowhere near big enough to contain him so the Phoenix will hope that this is the day for him to come good.
Craig Overton delivered a new ball spell to remember in the previous match and was rightly named as the match hero. He knows the Phoenix batters will come at him here and if he can deliver a similar spell he will have the Brave on their way to victory.
Betting
Dan Mousley will know how to play this ground as it is his home ground in county cricket and coming off the back of a match winning spell against the Trent Rockets I am intrigued by his performance line of 29.5 which looks a little on the low side when we consider that he covered this by a country mile with the ball against Trent Rockets where he took three wickets and then covered it with the bat against the London Spirit in the previous game. A good day with either and he’ll reach 30 points but even an average day of a wicket and 10 runs or a wicket and a catch gets him there. Mousley has bowled late in the innings in all three matches and we know he’ll target the stumps. This line looks low to me.
Another player who will be playing on his home ground is Jacob Bethell and at 11/1 I think he is value to top score for the Birmingham Phoenix here. He did exactly that in the previous match with 46 from 29 balls and he top scored in the game before with 43 from 27. He was only three runs away from top scoring in the first game as well so Bethell has to be a leading runner at a decent price. The Southern Brave have the new ball bowlers to both keep the runs down and take wickets and that should keep Bethell in the game and at the price I’ll pay to see if he can complete the hat trick of top scores.
Tips
Back D.Mousley’s Performance – Over 29.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with William Hill
Back him here:
Back J.Bethell Top Birmingham Phoenix Batter for a 1/10 stake at 12.00 with BetVictor
