The remainder of the latest round of matches in the Specsavers County Championship get underway on Thursday when there is a full fixture list in Division One as the race for the title and for survival resumes while leaders Essex are in action in the second division.
Division One
Four big matches see Hampshire hosting Lancashire at the Ageas Bowl, Middlesex taking on Surrey at Lord’s, Warwickshire heading to Headingley for the second time this week to face Yorkshire and Somerset hosting Durham at Taunton.
I’m tempted to back Lancashire but they might just have run their race for this campaign and it was around this time that Hampshire launched the great escape so there is no need to risk anything. I probably would have chanced Warwickshire had Adil Rashid got in the England side but he didn’t so I won’t. Middlesex are my pick for the London derby but there is no value in their price.
That leads me to Taunton where title chasing Durham go up against a Somerset side who are going much better in the Championship than many expected, assisted by the weight of runs coming from the bat of Marcus Trescothick.
Just how many runs he and indeed they will score against this Durham attack remains to be seen though. Chris Rushworth and Graham Onions are tough enough to face but Mark Wood has been included in the squad and that brings a whole new dimension to their attack.
It isn’t even as though Durham can’t put up runs because they can and you just get the feeling that the bowling resources of Somerset are starting to get a little stretched. They have been resting players more and more and are already without Jamie Overton for the season anyway which isn’t ideal.
Durham are giving it a really good go this season and in Stoneman, Jennings, Borthwick and Collingwood they have four class batsmen to go with their top class seam attack. Even money on Durham is a shade too big for me to ignore.
Division Two
The matches in the second flight are no less important on Thursday. With Worcestershire making a bit of a Horlicks of the opening day of their match down at Kent, Essex and Leicestershire will be looking to take advantage when they host Sussex and Derbyshire respectively.
Essex went into the round of matches with a seven point lead at the top, a lead which they will hope to extend this week and against a Sussex side who aren’t batting too deep at the minute and who don’t have as much bowling depth as they would like currently either, you’ve got to think the leaders will take advantage of that position.
Essex slipped up in their previous match against Gloucestershire when they should have chased down a target on the final day so that should have fired them up and they go into this match off the back of some decent form in the one day competitions where they have made both quarter finals.
If we contrast that to Sussex they have been disappointing in this competition and never really threatened the latter stages of either one day event so the season is fading into oblivion for the Sharks. Essex have it all in front of them and that can begin with a win in Colchester.
In the other match Leicestershire have their eyes on a remarkable title chance and should see off Derbyshire but this is the sort of time of the year sides who are in contention who aren’t expected to be get caught in the headlights and fade a little. I fancy Leicestershire to win but at 4/6 I’ll let them do that rather than get caught out if this is the week their title tilt fades.
Tips
Back Durham to beat Somerset for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Coral
Back them here:
PUSH – Back Essex to beat Sussex for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Winner Sports
Back them here:
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