There is one match in the Royal London One Day Cup on Thursday and it comes from Chelmsford where Essex and Kent meet in the latest leg of their rivalry in what is effectively a win to stay alive contest for them both.
Both teams have lost two of their opening three matches and you need a lot of luck to qualify with three defeats on the ledger so the loser here will hit the halfway mark of the group stage and effectively be out of the competition. As always it is the live streams to watch this competition.
Essex
After a washout against Lancashire to open up their campaign, Essex haven’t really taken advantage of the luck they had in that match as they have gone down in their next two outings and are playing no lose cricket from here on in. They haven’t been helped by call ups to The Hundred and to South Africa in the case of Simon Harmer and it isn’t helping that Alastair Cook is injured and not playing this tournament either but if they are to stay alive in the campaign they need to find a way to win this match.
The issue that Essex have had in the last two matches is they have allowed both their opponents to score more than 300. When they are missing the calibre of batting that Essex are missing they really can’t afford their bowlers to concede so many runs. To be fair, despite being decimated with the bat, Essex have put up a couple of creditable efforts with the bat in hand even in defeat so if their bowlers can help out there are still wins out there for them.
Kent
Kent are slightly better off than Essex as they have a win to go with their two losses but they are still in the same boat in that they can’t afford to lose here if they want to keep their campaign competitive. They are another team who have been impacted by The Hundred but they are used to that and when you look at their side it still doesn’t look too bad even allowing for the players they are missing to the 100 ball competition.
The good thing for Kent is they don’t need to look too far to where they are wrong. They have conceded 351/8, 308/7 and 396/5 in their three matches and that isn’t a combination that is going to get them very far. In two of their three matches they have scored more than 300 themselves so like their opponents in this match, if their bowlers can find some form then their batters are in line to do the business, but that looks a big if at present.
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Team News
Essex have named an unchanged squad for this match and you would imagine they will go in with the same team which almost got over the line against Northamptonshire, if for no other reason than their options are restricted.
Kent are forced into two changes with George Linde and Grant Stewart out with injuries. Harry Finch has been recalled to the squad for the rest of the competition while Joe Denly has recovered from a back issue to feature.
Betting
Bookmakers can’t split these two sides and while I would fancy Kent to get the better of Essex here I can do without the heartache of watching their bowlers in action on a small ground so I’m happy to leave the match betting alone but there is a fairly obvious bet here which comes in the form of over 553.5 runs in what I see as a match which almost has to be high scoring even allowing for the slightly unpredictable nature of 50 over cricket.
If we were to put this one in simple terms these two teams have played five matches in the competition so far and they have conceded 300 in all five of them. If that trend continues here then that is 600 runs accounted for. It might be that both don’t score 300 but you have to think one of them will because these two decimated attacks are getting no joy at present and this is a tiny ground which both teams know well. Two struggling attacks should play into the hands of the batters so I like the over here.
Tips
Back Over 553.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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