Warwickshire and Essex are no strangers to deep runs in one day competitions and both will be eyeing up another semi-final on Wednesday when the two meet in the quarter final of the Royal London One Day Cup at Edgbaston.
We’ve already seen Essex mess up one quarter final this season which puts plenty of pressure on them in this match while Warwickshire’s season is now all about this after a surprisingly poor T20 campaign and a fading Championship tilt.
Warwickshire
I always think Warwickshire are better suited to this competition than the T20. Their bowlers have more effect in 10 over spells than four overs and they bowl a four day length which is harder to get away in this format. On the other side their batsmen are stroke players who like the time to get themselves in and pick up the pace rather than sloggers who give it large from the off.
One thing which could benefit Warwickshire here is that even though they came second in the group they have already played a knockout match in the tournament as if they didn’t beat Yorkshire in their final group game they would have been out. The quality they produced when it was needed in that match, despite a sticky start, bodes very well for them.
Essex
I also think this is the better of the two one day formats for Essex as well. Their batsmen are also much better playing the longer innings than the whizz bang crash knocks needed in the T20 while the more overs their economical, reliable bowlers get to bowl the harder it is for the opposition to score.
Essex will have to deal with the hurt of messing up their T20 quarter final at Nottinghamshire which they looked in complete control of at one stage and you sense they might need to bat first to win this match although they do prefer to chase so it will be interesting to see what they do should they win the toss.
Team News
Warwickshire have been boosted by the news that Chris Woakes has been included in their squad with England releasing their players for these matches. There is no Varun Chopra against the club he has agreed to join next season.
Despite the injury to Dan Lawrence which rules him out of this match there is no Alastair Cook in the squad which might disappoint Essex. That said Nick Browne goes into the match off the back of a magnificent double century in the Championship so we should expect big things from him.
Betting
This is a really tricky match to predict the outcome of. One of the reasons for that is because of Essex’s meltdown in the NatWest T20 Blast quarter final and the other is because these two are really good sides in this format of the game. If I was betting on the match I would marginally side with Warwickshire with Chris Woakes’ availability a big thing. I’m not betting on the match though I’m heading to the side markets.
The market in question is the sixes market where the line naturally looks low at seven or more. Edgbaston isn’t the biggest ground to begin with but with what is to come there at the weekend I’m not expecting this match to be anywhere near the middle of the square.
There is no way the NatWest T20 Finals Day is going to be played on a used wicket and usually it is in the middle of the square given that it is sold out weeks in advance so I’m expecting this match to be played on the outside of the square which should bring about a short boundary somewhere.
Both sides have left handers in their side to exploit that and both have big hitters too in the form of Clarke, Evans, Woakes, Ambrose, Ryder, Bopara, ten Doeschate and Zaidi among others and that lot combined can push for seven sixes.
I’m also going to chance a top bowler for the home side. Essex crumbled to spin at Trent Bridge a couple of weeks ago and with that in mind Ateeq Javid could be overpriced to be the top Warwickshire bowler here. He comes into the match off the back of a spell of 4/42 in Warwickshire’s win over Yorkshire earlier in the month and something similar could land the odds at a big price.
Tips
Back 7 or more sixes for a 5/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back it here:
Back A.Javid Top Warwickshire Bowler for a 2/10 stake at 7.00 with Winner Sports
Back him here:
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