The Metro Bank One Day Cup continues on Friday and while the UK braces itself for some nasty weather which is certainly going to wash the action out on Saturday, it looks pretty good in the main for these matches.
These four games all come from Group B of the competition and as has been the case on the two previous days of the event we are restricted to the live streams which the counties provide with The Hundred getting the TV treatment.
Gloucestershire vs Northamptonshire (11.00)
Gloucestershire stage their last game of the season at Cheltenham on Friday when they entertain Northamptonshire with the home side looking for a second win in as many matches to start their tournament. Northamptonshire begin their campaign in this match.
Gloucestershire saw off Derbyshire with ease on this ground on Tuesday but go into this one as the outsiders against a Northamptonshire side who appear to be taking the competition seriously when you consider they have recruited two overseas players for it. In Prithvi Shaw they could have signed a special batter and if he has the tournament he is capable of and the usual suspects bat well around him it isn’t hard to see why Northants are the favourites for this match. I don’t particularly rate Gloucestershire this season but there is no getting away from the fact that they were impressive in their opening win over Derbyshire. That win might have given them a competitive edge in this game but I still don’t trust them. I don’t really trust Northants much more so this is an easy one to leave alone.
Worcestershire vs Glamorgan (11.00)
Another of the earlier matches to begin on Friday does so at New Road where the other winners in this group on the opening day of action, Worcestershire, play host to a Glamorgan side who play their first game in the competition here.
Worcestershire looked very good in that first game and immediately justified my outright pick on them in the tournament. They batted strongly, as I expected them to, and there is probably more to come with a couple of players still to come into the side, and then when they had the ball in hand they bowled very well too and that was a very good standard setter. We might find out even more about the Worcestershire credentials here because they are up against the first winners of this tournament in its new role alongside The Hundred in Glamorgan, a team who have only lost two players to the bigger tournament in Dan Douthwaite and Chris Cooke however the 2021 winners have decided to rest Sam Northeast and Timm van der Gugten for this one which is interesting. I would be happy to take Worcestershire here but there has been a bit of rain in this part of the world and this isn’t the best ground for drainage so we might naturally get a shortened game which I don’t want to be involved in, especially when I’m already invested.
Special Offer
Sign up for a Boylesports account and bet £10 to get up to £20 in free bets! Perfect offer for this competition! Click the image below for this great offer! New accounts only. 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Sussex vs Durham (11.00)
The last of the earlier starts comes from Hove where last season’s semi-finalists Sussex take on the 2021 finalists Durham in one of the better matches on the day, one where Durham are looking to bounce back from defeat on Tuesday and Sussex get their competition underway.
Sussex used not playing on Tuesday to have another warm-up match and they piled on the runs and bowled pretty well and now have Cheteshwar Pujara back to add to what was already a decent looking batting unit. This is a team who scored big runs last season and while they have lost a few to The Hundred their batting hasn’t been affected too much and even without the likes of Tymal Mills and George Garton around there is still Steve Finn who is experienced and some good young bowlers. I think Durham are very much the same. Their batting hasn’t been impacted too much with the exception of Ollie Robinson departing but their bowling certainly has been affected, as we saw when Worcestershire piled up the runs on them earlier in the week. Stronger batting sides to bowling attacks generally lead to high scoring matches and we’ve seen that on both match days so far. I see no difference here so I like over 522.5 runs in this one.
Somerset vs Warwickshire (14.00)
The last match to begin on Friday does so in Taunton where the Vitality Blast champions Somerset get their Metro Bank One Day Cup campaign underway when they take on a Warwickshire team who also play their first game in the competition.
Both these teams have been heavily impacted by call ups to The Hundred. You would expect that in the case of Warwickshire given that their home ground hosts a team in that competition while with Somerset winning the Vitality Blast their players were always going to be sought after commodities so these are very much two second string teams who will be going at it. Unfortunately the longer Friday goes on the more a horrible band of rain approaches the UK so the chances of a result in this one isn’t as guaranteed as I would like to take this match properly. In saying that, I’d like to see the competitiveness of these second tier sides before I get involved anyway so I’m happy to sit this one out.
Tips
Back Sussex vs Durham – Over 522.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2023
