Second spot in the North Group is up for grabs in the NatWest T20 Blast on Saturday when Nottinghamshire host Worcestershire in the one match being played on the day. With no other cricket going on this match is live on TV as we get to see two of the better sides in the country on show.
Nottinghamshire Outlaws
Nottinghamshire are starting to put a run together in this tournament now. They have won their last four completed matches in the tournament with a lot of that down the quality overseas players they have had as well as the fortune of England leaving their key players alone with the exception of Alex Hales.
Andre Russell fleeted in for a short while and now Imran Tahir has taken over from him and with that quality combined with the excellent form of the likes of Michael Lumb, Dan Christian, Harry Gurney and others it isn’t hard to see why Nottinghamshire have suddenly got their act in gear in this competition.
Worcestershire Rapids
If Nottinghamshire are putting the sort of run together that they wanted, Worcestershire are doing exactly the opposite. They have now lost their last four matches and even with 198 on the board against Lancashire on Friday night they still couldn’t get over the line and that has to be starting to become a concern.
Unlike Nottinghamshire’s overseas players, Worcestershire’s ones are struggling. Matt Henry and Kyle Abbott combined for figures of 1-109 from seven overs against Lancashire on Friday and that is savage at any level. Moeen Ali remains away with England and you do fear for Worcestershire here it has to be said.
Betting
Nottinghamshire are short favourites for this match but on current form that is completely fair you would have to say but I can’t really get motivated to take it for a few reasons. Firstly there is the issue that both sides played on Friday night and now play less than 20hrs later and we never know quite how both sides will recover.
Secondly the weather forecast isn’t the greatest it must be said with heavy showers passing through the area in the morning into the early afternoon and some nasty stuff backed up for later in the day too so those two things combined is enough for me to leave the match betting alone but I will chance a couple in the hope we get some solid play.
First of all is the batting match bet between Daryl Mitchell and Joe Clarke where I like the England Lions star. Clarke is a really good player and we saw that in the Championship in midweek when he nailed a controversial century in leading Worcestershire to a win and he also scored 69* when these two sides met in the reverse fixture.
Daryl Mitchell isn’t in good form in this competition and at times we’ve seen him slide down the order and that doesn’t suit his game at all. Mitchell has only mustered one double figure score in his last five T20 matches and you would think he is going to need quite a few to win this match up. I’m going to side with the form though and that is Clarke.
I’m also going to take a chance on Joe Leach to be the top Worcestershire batsman. If this is a shortened game or rain is around we might see Worcestershire shove him up the order to get on with it like they did in a 50 over TV game earlier in the season at Yorkshire.
We might not even need the threat of rain for him to go up the order because he actually opened the batting against Lancashire on Friday night so this is a role that is becoming more frequent for him. He belts a long ball when he catches hold of it and if he gets in and bats out the powerplay he might just set a target that isn’t for catching at a 19/1 price which will look huge were he to walk out to open the batting.
Tips
WON – Back J.Clarke to score more runs than D.Mitchell for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Bet365
Back him here:
Back J.Leach Top Worcestershire Batsman for a 1/10 stake at 20.00 with Paddy Power
Back him here:
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