Northamptonshire became the first side at NatWest T20 Blast finals day when they beat Sussex in the quarter final on Wednesday and on Thursday the defending champions Birmingham Bears will look to get back to their own party.
Birmingham take on a dangerous Essex side at Edgbaston in what has the makings of being the match of the round, or at least it would if the forecast was decent. Unfortunately for both sides the forecast both for the day of the game and the reserve day is less than ideal which helps nobody.
Birmingham topped the North Group in the early stage of the tournament but they had Brendon McCullum around for much of that time but he’s not here anymore. His departure is lessened by the fact that Ian Bell has been made available by England. Chris Woakes is now back to fitness and he’s playing again while Boyd Rankin is in the squad too.
Essex had the option of picking Alastair Cook this week but he hasn’t been chosen. This isn’t really his format and Essex are sticking with the side who have got them this far. Both overseas players, Jesse Ryder and Shaun Tait, are in the squad while Graham Napier is there too despite a recent injury. Reece Topley is also there while Ravi Bopara might be looking to prove a point too.
Betting on this match is quite hard because the forecast is so bad and I’m not going to commit to anything this early. If we do get a game in on Thursday it will be heavily rain affected and most of the markets will be voided apart from the match odds but that will just be a lottery. Keep an eye out on Friday’s betting preview in case the match gets played on Friday and I’ll provide some thoughts there or on my twitter page but for now the match is a rare no bet one for me.
