There is one more match in the NatWest T20 Blast on Saturday and it comes from New Road in Worcester as the high flying Worcestershire Rapids host the Nottinghamshire Outlaws in what should be a decent game of cricket in the North Group.
Both sides saw their matches washed out on Friday night so they will be eagerly anticipating getting onto the field and with the forecast for Worcester seemingly ok for the day we should be fine to finally get a game in.
Worcestershire
Worcestershire have really begun this tournament strongly. They have won four of their five completed matches losing only to Northamptonshire and they are top of the table so there is clearly no harm in that. They have played some excellent cricket with the bat and the ball.
They have a young side but it is a side who have been developing for a while now and having made the quarter finals for the last two years they should be a team ready to make their first finals day. They have certainly started the tournament like a side ready to go to the next level.
Nottinghamshire
In this competition Nottinghamshire have been very poor but in the 50 over competition they have been scoring runs by the bucket load and winning matches with ease. In theory they should be equally as good in this format of the game but with just one win and two no results from five matches they are already lagging behind.
Nottinghamshire can hit any side out of sight with their batting line up but their issue has been restricting sides and the only time they’ve been able to restrict someone was Lancashire and that was the only match they have won in the tournament.
Team News
Moeen Ali has been released by England to play in this match before he joins up with the England one-day squad over the weekend. Daryl Mitchell thinks he has recovered from injury so he will return too. Matt Henry is in the squad as well.
Nottinghamshire have Alex Hales available for this game but England haven’t released Stuart Broad for the fixture. Andre Russell has arrived for a brief stint at Trent Bridge and he will face his former teammates in this match.
New Road
There have been three matches in the tournament on this ground and they have all been high scoring games. Worcestershire ran up well over 200 in their opening match and in the two matches since then the first innings scores have been 173 and 169 and both were chased down with a little bit in hand which suggests the wicket is playing very well.
Betting
In all known form in the tournament you would say that Worcestershire are the pick here especially at odds against but with the England players back and the Andre Russell factor to put into the equation the prices might just about be right. I wouldn’t want to take Worcestershire on but I’m no longer rushing to back them I don’t think.
Instead I’m going to side with the sixes here. The line is at 12.5 which has been covered in two of the three matches here this season and with Sky bringing their pod to town we have to think that the boundaries will be shortened somewhere. They are plenty short enough straight down the ground to the New Stand anyway.
With Hales and Moeen back we’ve got so much hitting power on show here. We have those two, Kohler-Cadmore, Leach, Whiteley, Lumb, Wessels, Patel, Russell and Taylor among others so with deep big hitting batting line ups on what are likely to be attainable boundaries it all points to plenty of sixes to me.
Tips
Back Over 12.5 sixes for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with William Hill
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