There are two more matches in the NatWest T20 Blast on Saturday before the Royal London One Day Cup begins on Sunday so for the four sides in action there is a last chance to build a bit of momentum to take into the 50 over tournament with them as well as enhancing their positions in this competition.
Both matches on Saturday come from the North Group. One of them is on TV and the other one isn’t. Leicestershire host Durham in the game that is on the box and that is the match we’ll begin our preview with.
Leicestershire vs Durham
Both these sides have had heavy schedules having both played away from home on Friday night and then having to make their way down to Leicester for this one on Saturday evening but at least they are both in the same boat so neither should be too disadvantaged.
Both teams lost their match on Friday night. They both batted first and both failed to put up anywhere near enough runs. Leicestershire were bowled out for 120 by Derbyshire while Durham’s 154/9 was easily chased down by Birmingham with overs to spare.
I don’t think we should write either side off on the back of those efforts though. Derby is never an easy place to bat while Birmingham’s bowling attack is pretty good so there were excuses on behalf of both sides on Friday so I’m not ruling out seeing a really good game of cricket here.
Leicestershire have won the last three meetings between these two on this ground and they could be considered value for this one although I’m not one for backing sides who get rolled over for 120 immediately afterwards although on a much better batting wicket I do expect Leicestershire to bat better here.
I’m not getting involved in the match betting in this one but there are two bets I like and the first is for Leicestershire to hit over 3.5 sixes. Leicestershire bat quite deep in this format of the game with Tom Wells often coming in as low as eight and while Durham have a solid attack it shipped six sixes in Birmingham on Friday night.
Generally when these two meet there are sixes and in Pettini, both O’Brien’s, Cosgrove, Akmal and Wells the Foxes have plenty of six hitters. With Sky’s pod likely to bring the boundary in somewhere the boundaries should be more accessible so I like the idea of Leicestershire hitting at least four of them.
I’m also going to take a chance on Ben Raine to be the top Leicestershire batsman. Raine will be going up against his former employers here which always adds fire to the belly but he is massively overpriced given that he has gone in at number four in the last two matches.
The fact Leicestershire kept with that move on Friday suggests it wasn’t a one off and it is a role he has been given so the 50/1 on him top scoring from there is crazily big. As it happens he top scored the first time he played that role at Yorkshire two games ago so it is well worth paying to see how well he does in this match.
Nottinghamshire vs Lancashire
This isn’t the easiest match to call. Before a ball was hit in this tournament many judges might have had this down as the battle of the two sides certain to qualify but it hasn’t panned out that way yet.
Lancashire finally got off the mark for the campaign on Friday night when they walloped Yorkshire having lost their first two while Nottinghamshire have also lost their opening two matches and desperately need a win.
I would probably have gone with Lancashire here had everything been normal but the scheduler has done them no good here. Lancashire only finished a match against Yorkshire, a huge derby at 9.30pm on Friday night and then they have to get down to Nottingham for a 2.30pm start the following day. That’s not easy.
That could be a reason to take Lancashire on but Nottinghamshire would have needed to show me much more than they have already for me to consider backing them so I’ll sit this afternoon match out.
Tips
Back Leicestershire Over 3.5 sixes for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Coral
Back it here:
Back B.Raine Top Leicestershire Batsman for a 1/10 stake at 51.00 with William Hill
Back him here:
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