The Metro Bank One Day Cup enters the knockout stages on Friday when the two quarter finals take place on a day where we find out the line up for the semi-finals which are to be played on Sunday.
The two quarter finals sees the teams who finished second in the respective groups hosting the team that finished third. Despite no match in The Hundred on Friday there is no TV coverage of either game so to watch either of them you’ll need to load up the live stream provided by the home team.
Leicestershire vs Hampshire
The pick of the quarter finals on Friday is the repeat of the 2023 final as the defending champions Leicestershire host the team they beat at Trent Bridge last term in Hampshire in what is likely to be a really spicy affair.
Hampshire will feel that Leicestershire picked their pocket in that final last year and will certainly be out for revenge, as their captain Nick Gubbins was quick to point out in his post-match interview after the win over Middlesex on Wednesday which secured Hampshire of their spot in this match. Leicestershire also had to win their last match to get in here and now that they have done that, with home advantage they will be looking to secure a trip to Somerset in the semi-final on Sunday. Both sides are likely to have players back from The Hundred too. Hampshire have confirmed that John Turner while Leicestershire haven’t named their squad but could have Josh Hull back in theory. Hampshire are slight favourites for this one but their batting has gone quiet at the wrong time and that is a concern but they have a very strong bowling unit with Turner back. Leicestershire would probably favour their batters over their bowlers here with two of their bowling attack on loan from Hampshire and therefore unavailable for the game. There has been a lot of rain around the midlands on Thursday though and it was still raining into the early hours on Friday so the toss here is going to be important. I wouldn’t want to bet on the outcome of this match until we know how the toss goes but I do think a run line of 523.5 is a little on the high side. Both teams have enough bowlers to take advantage of the testing early conditions and given how feisty this will be I think this will be competitive enough to play the under here.
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Worcestershire vs Warwickshire
The other semi-final sees two rivals meeting when Worcestershire take on Warwickshire but in a weird twist of fate because of an England Lions match taking place at New Road this will actually be played at the home of the visitors in Edgbaston.
You would imagine that would give Warwickshire much more of an advantage than they might otherwise have had, although I do think that they have the big gain of having more experienced players who have played in big matches than what is a largely young Worcestershire side which has been going out in this competition. To be fair to Worcestershire, I think they have done brilliantly to make it this far in the tournament but their batting is a little too top heavy for my liking, which isn’t ideal with all the rain that has been around Edgbaston in the 18 hours or so in the lead up to this game which would make scoring runs early for the team batting first much more difficult. I think there is more classy depth in the Warwickshire batting and they have more experienced bowling options and now when you throw a sudden home advantage into the equation I do expect Warwickshire to win this match but once again the conditions leading into the game dictate an over importance on the toss so until I know how that goes I’ll keep my powder dry.
Tips
Back Leicestershire vs Hampshire – Under 523.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
