The Royal London One Day Cup continues on Monday with four sides kicking off their campaigns and two others playing in the tournament for the second time such is the crazy schedule of county cricket these days.
We have a TV game along with two away from the cameras. All three matches are day/night games although with the weather not yet how we would expect in June I don’t think the conditions are likely to change too much over the course of the day.
Sunday recap
The tournament began in fine style in terms of the cricket on show on Sunday. There were three last over finishes along with a narrow defeat from a monster chase as the much maligned 50 over format fought back at the critics.
It wasn’t the best of days for us and our bets. We did get Essex in safely but Worcestershire ran into Hamish Rutherford at his best and couldn’t cling on and then amazingly a 65 run tenth wicket partnership got Somerset over the line against Gloucestershire in a match where the boundary total finished two short of where we wanted it to be so there is much to work on for us going into Monday.
Elsewhere there were wins for Kent off the penultimate ball against Surrey, for Durham by a narrow 11 run margin against Leicestershire in a match where both sides made well over 300 and also for Lancashire who came past Warwickshire with a bit in hand.
Sussex vs Essex
Sussex begin their campaign against Essex on Monday. Essex played on Sunday and while they won at Hampshire they were made to work very hard and backing that up the next day is never easy.
Sussex have started the T20 pretty well although they did come unstuck against Surrey on Friday night and it will be interesting to see how they go without Tymal Mills who can’t play this format of the game. They do have Chris Jordan while Ollie Robinson should go ok.
Essex will be buoyed by beating Hampshire, especially chasing down over 300 but they do look a little light with the ball it has to be said and that is a concern here. The one thing they do have is a dynamite batting line up which can chase any score down.
I’m not going to bet on the match outcome here but I do think this will be a high scoring match and as such I’m going to take over 9.5 sixes. We saw how accessible the boundaries are on this ground in the T20 game here on Wednesday night and we also saw how well the wicket is playing at Hove too.
Both matches on this ground last year saw this line comfortably covered and with the batsmen on show here such as Wright, Nash, Taylor, Machan, Ryder, Bopara, ten Doeschate and even players like Zaidi we have plenty of firepower to get to 10 sixes here.
Nottinghamshire vs Northamptonshire
This is the first game in the tournament for both sides and as such they will both be looking to get off to winning starts. If we use T20 as a form guide Northants have every chance here because they have begun that competition very well whereas Nottinghamshire have started slowly.
I’m tempted by Northants in this match but I do wonder if they have the batting depth to specialise in this competition. Nottinghamshire are going to be priced pretty short throughout this tournament but it is important to remember that from their best side a year or two ago they are without Alex Hales, James Taylor and Chris Read here. I’ll tentatively leave the match alone but bookmakers are offering odds on a number of side markets on all games now so I will get involved in one of them.
I notice on the Nottinghamshire website that their coach Mick Newell has been quoted as saying that he wants his batsmen to show attacking intent right from the beginning so that could well keep Northants’ new ball bowlers interested and one of those is Rory Kleinveldt.
Kleinveldt has a performance line which is 34 and that looks quite low to me. He is almost certain to bowl his 10 overs and he will bowl at the beginning and the end of the innings when the cheap wickets are around. Two wickets will cover this line but if he doesn’t cover it he’s likely to be sent in when the quest for quick runs comes around and he can belt a long ball so this line could be covered with the bat too.
It doesn’t matter how it is covered at the end of the day but given how much he is going to be in the game I do think it will be covered in some way so I’m on the overs there.
Glamorgan vs Gloucestershire
The schedulers have done Gloucestershire no favours here. They could probably have done with a day off having played T20 matches on Thursday and Friday and then a 50 over match on Sunday with the travelling in between and again after that last game ahead of this one so it wouldn’t be a surprise if they are a touch jaded.
Glamorgan have no such issues and they are going along well in the T20 at the minute so they should be full of confidence here. It would be wrong of us not to highlight the impact that Dale Steyn has made in that competition and to point out he isn’t around here but Glamorgan did batter Surrey without the South African so that gives me confidence they’ll cope without him.
Gloucestershire have to be feeling sorry for themselves after their hard defeat to Somerset on Sunday and that will be an emotional loss which might take longer than 24hrs to get over. Glamorgan have no mental baggage and at this price they have to be the call here.
Tips
Back Sussex vs Essex – Over 9.5 sixes for a 4/10 stake at 2.20 with Coral
Back them here:
WON – Back R.Kleinveldt’s Performance Pts – 34&Over for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back him here:
WON – Back Glamorgan to beat Gloucestershire for a 4/10 stake at 2.20 with Paddy Power
Back them here:
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