After the thrills and spills of Vitality Blast finals day on Saturday, the pace drops a bit on Wednesday when the LV= County Championship resumes with a number of teams looking for valuable points ahead of the One Day Cup starting.
We have a good race at the top of both divisions beginning to come to the boil so it could be well worth linking up with the county live streams and keeping an eye on the major action in the key games.
Division One
Surrey have seen their lead at the top of the table cut to just 13 points so they will know that there is no room to slip up when they head across the river to Lord’s to take on relegation threatened Middlesex. Essex are creeping into title contention and will be looking to make up for their heartache at Edgbaston on Saturday when they play host to their rivals Kent in a key fixture. Warwickshire and Hampshire are just about holding onto the top two. Warwickshire welcome Lancashire to Edgbaston on Wednesday while Hampshire head to Trent Bridge to take on an inconsistent Nottinghamshire side. Vitality Blast champions Somerset will look to build on the momentum of the weekend when they head to Wantage Road to take on bottom of the table Northamptonshire.
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Division Two
Durham look like they have pulled clear in the race both for automatic promotion to Division One but also the Division Two title and they will be looking to take a giant step towards both when they make the trip to bottom of the table Derbyshire on Wednesday. To the surprise of many it is Leicestershire who remain in control of their own destiny for second place and they will be looking to maintain that position when they host Worcestershire this week. Sussex have just faltered a little lately and will hope to get back on track when they head up to Headingley to take on a Yorkshire side who can ignite promotion hopes with a win.
Betting
There isn’t a huge amount that I like in these matches as once again a number of Division One teams have had a lack of preparation time because of T20 commitments while England have a number of players as well. The one bet that I do like is for Yorkshire to get the better of Sussex in Division Two. I don’t usually venture into this division but on the occasions that I do I like the take on the non-Test counties because by this stage of the season a gulf between them and the Test ones tends to exist.
Sussex actually begin the round in third place in the table but they are there on the basis of eight draws from their nine matches. That win came in their opening match and since then they have had Cheteshwar Pujara and Steve Smith around and haven’t won since. Those two aren’t here anymore and their draws have been by narrow margins. Last week Derbyshire ran out of overs 19 short of a target and the round before Glamorgan ran out of overs with Sussex nine down. The match before that Worcestershire were five short of their target when overs ran out so in theory Sussex could have lost their last three matches. Yorkshire were on top in the reverse meeting where Pujara, Ollie Robinson and a couple of other key players played for Sussex who aren’t playing here. Conversely, Mark Steketee has arrived to pep up this Yorkshire attack and if the rain relents long enough I expect the home side to get the job done on a wicket which will surely be designed to achieve a result given the Yorkshire plight in the standings.
Tips
Back Yorkshire to beat Sussex for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Boylesports
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