After the excitement of the final night of the NatWest T20 Blast group stage on Friday night we are back in Royal London One Day Cup mode barely 12hrs later as Somerset host Sussex in the South Group in front of the TV cameras at Taunton.
Somerset go into the match knowing that if they win here they will secure a quarter final spot with a match to spare. Sussex are out of this competition having had a disappointing run since the return of the competition and are playing the role of party spoilers now.
Somerset
It has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride for Somerset in this competition with some really close wins but they have managed to pick up four wins and a washout from their six matches so far and one more win will secure a quarter final spot and potentially a home match when they get there too.
Injuries have been coming along for Somerset as the competition has gone on but they haven’t let that affect them on the field. Their strength has been in their batting depth but the longer the season goes on the more effective their canny bowling attack is being. Whisper it quietly but Somerset could be genuine contenders for this competition.
Sussex
It has been a really disappointing season for Sussex who pride themselves on their one day form. They have bombed out of the NatWest T20 Blast and only have one win from six matches in this competition so they would rather forget their white ball cricket this season.
The main reason for their struggles has been a lack of batting depth. This season more than any other they have really come to realise what they had when Michael Yardy was around and they haven’t been able to replace him. They are a genuine batsman light and probably an all-rounder short too. That batting is only further highlighted since Ross Taylor left.
Team News
Somerset will be without Jamie Overton who has been ruled out of the rest of the season but they do have Mahela Jayawardena who has been signed up as the overseas player for all limited overs cricket this season.
Sussex have named an unchanged squad to the one which disappointingly lost to Hampshire on Wednesday night which means that Chris Jordan is in it but there remains no Tymal Mills despite talk earlier in the summer that he could play one day cricket. They go into the game without an overseas player too.
Taunton
There have been three previous matches on this ground in the 50 over competition this season. 260 is the lowest first innings score but perhaps more significantly is that Somerset have won all three matches and would have hit 300 in their last two matches if they had needed to.
In terms of boundary counts all three matches have had totals in the 50s. 53, 50 and 59 have been the boundary numbers while sixes have reached seven, 11 and seven so although the matches have been high scoring here there hasn’t been an amazing number of boundaries.
Betting
I’m going with two bets in this match. The first of them is on the match handicap and I’m also going to chance one in the top Sussex batsman market. Looking at the handicap first I’m not sure it is weighted heavily enough on Somerset’s side.
I’ve already mentioned how Somerset have won all three matches on this ground and Sussex must be lacking momentum and motivation for this match especially having lost their last two matches and been dumped out of the T20 in the last week.
If there is a concern about Somerset it could be the tonking they took at the Ageas Bowl on Friday night but they never got going in that competition at all and may well have saved themselves a little for this match. They changed almost their entire side for that match so we shouldn’t really take that into too much account.
Simply putting it Sussex are struggling badly with the bat in this competition whereas Somerset are on it with the bat and the ball and I believe they’ll win this either by three wickets or more or by 11 runs or more.
Ben Brown has caught the eye this week. He has made 39 and 62 in the two 50 over matches this week and earlier in the month he bashed a huge century in the County Championship so he is going along quite nicely at the minute. It is the kind of form that could see him go up the order in a struggling side.
Whether he does that or not remains to be seen but either way he can top score and at 17/2 he’s worthy of a small investment to see if his excellent form continues.
Royal London One Day Cup – Tips
Back Somerset (-2.5wickets/10.5runs) to beat Sussex for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back them here:
Back B.Brown Top Sussex Batsman for a 1/10 stake at 9.50 with Paddy Power
Back him here:
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