After the drama and excitement of the England vs Pakistan Test match, the NatWest T20 Blast is back on our screens on Tuesday evening when the two sides chasing Nottinghamshire in the North Group meet on what is potentially a big night for both sides not just in their hopes of topping the group but also of securing a home quarter final.
The North Group is so tight at present that the loser of this match could yet miss out on the quarter finals altogether so the stakes are really high for both Northamptonshire and Birmingham Bears going into this one. Luckily we have no weather issues so we’re nicely set.
Northamptonshire
You could argue Northamptonshire are the best T20 team in the country right now having been to two of the last three finals and now flying high and in a position to make a third finals day in four years. I’m not surprised they are doing well. Everyone knows their jobs in this competition and they have some very underrated players.
Northants’ batting line up matches up to anything in the competition, North or South even though the likes of Steven Crook, Alex Wakely and even players like Adam Rossington and Ben Duckett still all go under the radar. They also know that if Richard Levi or Josh Cobb come off they will win more games than they lose. Despite that I would still suggest their strength lies with the ball incredibly.
Birmingham Bears
Birmingham ended a run of three successive defeats at the weekend when they were far too good for Leicestershire thanks mainly to an excellent partnership between Sam Hain and Ian Bell. If there has been a problem with the Bears this season it has been that they are too reliant on those two. To provide indication of that those two have over 300 runs each and the next best is 159 for Laurie Evans at an average less than 20.
On the flip side Birmingham don’t always need to put up tons of runs because they have a very solid bowling attack led by Rikki Clarke but even then only Oliver Hannon-Dalby has double figures for number of wickets for this season so you could say that the Bears have done well to be third this deep into the tournament.
Team News
Northants will be without Ben Duckett for this match as he is now away with the England Lions so Richard Keogh comes back into the squad. Seekkuge Prasanna and Rory Kleinveldt are back in the squad after international call up and injury respectively.
Birmingham have named a 14 man squad which includes Keith Barker who has only made one appearance in the competition this season. William Porterfield misses out as he is away with Ireland still.
Wantage Road
There have been five matches at Northamptonshire’s home ground this year with four of them being won by the chasing side. The scoring hasn’t always been the highest with only one first innings score being over 170. The pitch must have been good that day as that was chased down without too much bother.
Betting
Northamptonshire went to Edgbaston a few weeks ago and gave Birmingham a really good beating and while this one might not be as comprehensive I do think Northants are good things in this match. I believe they match Birmingham if not edge them with the ball and they are much more solid with the bat and that should play out into a home win here.
Prior to the win over a Leicestershire side whose motivation was questionable on Sunday, Birmingham had hit the skids and that isn’t ideal. Northants have been going along very nicely in this tournament and at even money I’m happy to invest in them here.
I’m also going to chance the Steelbacks on the most sixes line as well. I’ve already mentioned Birmingham are heavily reliant on two men and neither of them are what you would call the most natural six hitters where perhaps Keogh aside for Northants here their top eight are all proficient in belting the ball a long way.
With that in mind I’m surprised that you can get odds against on Northants to hit the most sixes but it is a price that I’m happy to get stuck into.
Finally I’m going to take one in the top Northamptonshire bowler market where Richard Gleeson looks overpriced to me at 9/2. When these two sides met at Edgbaston he ripped through the Birmingham top order with three wickets and prior to not taking any wickets at Durham on Friday night his recent figures were 2/13, 3/12 and 3/20 so he’s in real good touch.
If he can repeat something along those lines in this match then he’ll go close to being the top bowler for the hosts here and at 9/2 it is worth paying to see how well he does.
Tips
WON – Back Northamptonshire to beat Birmingham Bears for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Boylesports
Back them here:
WON – Back Northamptonshire Most 6s for a 4/10 stake at 2.05 with Bet365
Back it here:
Back R.Gleeson Top Northamptonshire Bowler for a 2/10 stake at 5.50 with 888sport
Back him here:
