After a few weeks off for the beginning of the Vitality Blast, the Rothesay County Championship resumes on Sunday when we have the first of two rounds of matches across both divisions with teams continuing to jostle for position.
The Test match has the televised attention over the course of these matches so if you are going to have a bet on any of the nine then you will need to load up the live stream which the home county puts on their YouTube channel.
Division One
Nottinghamshire will begin the second half of the season on top of the pile in the top flight and they resume at Trent Bridge when they host Yorkshire, who sitting second bottom in the table need a big last seven matches to avoid relegation. Surrey are the closest challengers to Nottinghamshire at the top of the table. The defending champions make the trip to New Road to go up against rock bottom Worcestershire. Sussex sit third in the table going into this round of matches and they will have a certain Jofra Archer in their squad when they make the lengthy trip to Durham. Essex will be looking to put a horrendous Vitality Blast stint behind them when they host Hampshire at Chelmsford while Warwickshire welcome Somerset to Edgbaston in the other match.
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Division Two
Leicestershire were the best team in the competition in the first half of the second division campaign and they will look to kick on when they host third placed Glamorgan at Grace Road this week. Leicestershire already lead the Welsh outfit by 42 points so they could take a massive step towards promotion with a win here. Derbyshire are in the other promotion spot as the campaign resumes. They head to Bristol to take on Gloucestershire. Two fancied runners before a ball was bowled this season were Lancashire and Kent but they occupy the bottom two spots ahead of their meeting in Blackpool where a certain Jimmy Anderson will be a stand-in captain for the home side. Northamptonshire welcome Middlesex to Wantage Road in the other game.
Betting
There is every chance that we are going to see a few draws this week with the weather set to be roasting hot at times and the pitches generally playing well this term. This is the first of two rounds with the Kookaburra ball and historically they have returned high scoring draws. One match where that might not be the case is at Chelmsford where Essex looked absolutely shot of confidence in the Blast on Friday night and might be vulnerable here.
They are a team who have a similar top six in that competition to the one they utilise here with the exception of Tom Westley and so a lack of confidence wouldn’t be ideal, especially against a Hampshire attack which can be quite lively. The Hampshire side differs a lot to the Blast one with the likes of Nick Gubbins, Mark Stoneman, Ben Brown and Kyle Abbott coming in for this competition and the exciting Tilak Varma could do some damage with the bat on debut on this ground against the Kookaburra ball. Essex have only made it to 300 once in their last eight innings so they weren’t going well with the bat prior to the Blast. Hampshire had a mare with the bat in the last game before the T20 break but they have only conceded 350 once in 14 innings this season and against an Essex side struggling for runs this looks a good spot for Hampshire to pick up a win here.
Tips
Back Hampshire to beat Essex for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Boylesports
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