After the drama and excitement of the NatWest T20 Blast quarter finals over the weekend the Royal London One Day Cup makes its return on Monday with some big matches as the counties hustle for a place in the knockout stages of the tournament.
Going into Monday there are plenty of sides who are still in with a chance of qualifying for the next stage which should give us an exciting end to the group part of the competition.
There is a full fixture list on Monday with eight matches taking place across the two groups and they start at different times. The 10.30am starts sees Durham taking on Derbyshire at Chester-le-Street, Middlesex go against Glamorgan at Lord’s, Northamptonshire host Gloucestershire at Wantage Road, Somerset play Surrey at Taunton, Warwickshire face Sussex at Rugby and Worcestershire go up against Leicestershire at New Road.
There are also a couple of later matches which start at 2pm and they see Hampshire playing Lancashire at the Ageas Bowl in a dress rehearsal for their T20 semi-final and Nottinghamshire host Kent at Trent Bridge.
I came close to backing Derbyshire to beat Durham in a match which both sides have to win to preserve their quarter final hopes but losing to Leicestershire in the Championship last week can’t have done much for their confidence. Durham are defending the title so they will be eager to win so I’ll leave that one alone. I’m not going near the Worcestershire vs Leicestershire dead rubber either. The Somerset and Surrey match is one which doesn’t really interest me either but the other matches do.
Middlesex still have an outside chance of making the quarter finals and it is to their advantage that they have Paul Stirling back for this match. He is capable of taking any side apart on his own but we’ve seen already in this campaign that the likes of Dawid Malan and Nick Gubbins are in good touch too.
Middlesex face a Glamorgan side who with all their points deductions in this competition have packed it in and decided to rest a number of key players for other competitions to come. The likes of Michael Hogan, Dean Cosker and Graham Wagg will all sit this one out and we saw earlier in the competition how much missing Wagg affects Glamorgan. Only one side look to be interested in this match and that is Middlesex and they have my money here.
Two sides who have plenty to play for are Northamptonshire and Gloucestershire. The latter are already through but can still get a home quarter final while Northants need to win both their matches to make it into the quarter final to follow up their run to finals day in the NatWest T20 Blast.
Northants will be buoyed by that success and a couple of their players found form against Australia over the weekend so they’ll go into this match with plenty of momentum and confidence. In fairness Gloucestershire will have that too as they are still unbeaten in this tournament so this should be a great match.
Possibly the difference here could be that Michael Klinger remains doubtful for the visitors and he’s a big player for them. If he doesn’t play then Gloucestershire’s batting is severely weakened which isn’t ideal against such a strong bowling attack. Northants bat all the way down which is important and if the likes of David Willey and Josh Cobb get going they can put this one beyond Gloucestershire very early.
Hampshire and Lancashire are both pushing for a quarter final spot but perhaps more importantly they can get the upper hand on the other ahead of their T20 semi-final next weekend. News broke on Sunday that Liam Livingstone was glassed in a bar in Kent so the Red Rose men were clearly enjoying their T20 quarter final win on Saturday night.
Livingstone won’t be playing in this match if the reports he had 20 stitches are true and Jos Buttler, very much a key man in that win on Saturday, won’t be around either so Lancashire will be more understrength than they would like going into this game. Hampshire are at full strength and are a good one day side and with home advantage I expect them to come through that one.
My final bet is a double of Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire. Sussex are out of the tournament and will be focusing all their energy on surviving in the Championship while Nottinghamshire face a Kent side who will be reeling from their exit in the T20. Of course that exit might motivate them but it would be only natural for them to need a few days to get over that.
Warwickshire will be buoyed by reaching finals day in the T20 while Nottinghamshire have had the bit between their teeth throughout this competition having made a real Horlicks of the other two tournaments this season. Both are significantly stronger than their opponents regardless of motivation and that double, which pays odds against, should land throughout the course of the day.
Back Middlesex to beat Glamorgan for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Bet365
Back Northants to beat Gloucestershire for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Skybet
Back Hampshire to beat Lancashire for a 4/10 stake at 1.73 with Stan James
Back Warwickshire to beat Sussex x Nottinghamshire to beat Kent for a 4/10 stake at 2.29 with Paddy Power
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