The second Friday night of the NatWest T20 Blast is upon us and once again we have a TV match and a few others which aren’t on the box in what is another busy night in England’s domestic competition. We’ll begin our preview with the TV match.
Birmingham Bears vs Worcestershire Rapids
The first midlands derby of the season has the potential to be a really good game of cricket. Both sides are full of excellent young cricketers and both go into this match off the back of fine wins last week so they should be full of confidence.
Birmingham are going to be without Chris Woakes here for this match as he was called up to the England squad and he leaves a big hole not just with the ball but as a safety valve with the bat down the order.
Worcestershire are arguably even stronger in personnel this week after Chris Russell has recovered from a niggle. He was their leading bowler in the tournament last year so having him back is no bad thing.
At the prices I think Worcestershire are decent value here I have to say. Tom Kohler-Cadmore isn’t going to blast centuries every week but Worcestershire have plenty of batting to cope should be fail and their bowling attack looks in decent nick. If they can keep Ian Bell quiet then this inexperienced Birmingham side could be there for the taking.
Non TV North Group Matches
There are three other matches from this group on Friday night with Yorkshire hosting Leicestershire, Lancashire welcoming Durham to Old Trafford and Northamptonshire and Derbyshire meeting at Wantage Road.
I’m interested in how Yorkshire go this season. They have added David Willey to the ranks but they face a decent test up first so I’ll watch and see how they go to begin with. Lancashire and Durham both go into that match off the back of hefty defeats and I don’t get involved in matches where so much guesswork about how they will have recovered is needed.
I’m tempted by Derbyshire at Northampton purely because it isn’t clear if Kleinveldt, Rossington and Stone will be fit for the home side. Derbyshire had a fantastic win at Old Trafford at the weekend and if they can repeat that performance they might well win this one but consistency has never been their strength so I’ll err on the side of caution there.
Non TV South Group Matches
Just the one South Group match on Friday and it sees Middlesex taking on Hampshire at Uxbridge. Hampshire have a good record in this fixture historically but this will be a much changed side from previous seasons.
Gone are the likes of Danny Briggs, who is now with Sussex, Chris Wood who is out for the season and James Vince who is playing in the Test match for England and while Shahid Afridi comes into the squad I just wonder if Hampshire’s depths are strong enough in the seam department even allowing for Tino Best and Ryan McLaren being on show.
Middlesex will be much stronger in this competition in a week or two when the heavy guns come back from the IPL but you look at their batting line up and in Dawid Malan, Paul Stirling and Adam Voges they have men who can take matches away from sides and they don’t look totally useless with the ball for once either.
I’ve a feeling this could be the season Hampshire struggle in this format and this might not be the simple away win that it would have been in years gone by. At odds against Middlesex just about have enough strength to appeal.
Tips
WON – Back Worcestershire to beat Birmingham Bears for a 4/10 stake at 2.30 with Unibet
Back them here:
WON – Back Middlesex to beat Hampshire for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Boylesports
Back them here:
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