After a day off on Monday the Royal London One Day Cup returns on Tuesday and we have a televised match to enjoy among the five matches taking place on the day as the first block of matches slowly comes to an end.
The TV match is Gloucestershire vs Hampshire at Bristol and we will begin out preview with that game before covering the others afterwards.
Gloucestershire vs Hampshire
Two sides struggling in one day cricket this season meet in front of the TV cameras at Bristol. The defending champions Gloucestershire have played three in their title defence and have lost them all while Hampshire have played twice with a win and a defeat but they were indebted to the rain for the game they won.
Although they’ve lost their opening three matches I don’t think Gloucestershire have done a whole lot wrong in the tournament. They’ve missed David Payne massively and it is very much a boost that he is back here. We saw first-hand that Gloucestershire should have won their opening match in this campaign when Somerset pulled off a remarkable win and since then the Bristol side have lost to a very strong Glamorgan and ran into Paul Stirling at his best.
I’ve mentioned quite a bit recently that injuries aren’t helping Hampshire and in this match alone you’ve got Michael Carberry, James Vince, Chris Wood and Reece Topley out with injuries or in Vince’s case not being made available by England. Shahid Afridi has signed a contract to play one day cricket for the rest of the week which does help.
Gloucestershire’s main problem in this tournament has been a lack of runs. They are yet to score 270 in the competition and you’re not going to win many games of cricket in 50 overs if you don’t do that. Their problem has been a lengthy tail stopping them from going too big too soon.
Hampshire don’t have that concern. With Gareth Andrew batting around nine or ten they bat as deep as anyone. Their bowling has been the issue so far but the additions to the squad of Tino Best and Shahid Afridi could make up for that and as long as they continue to bat well, and with Tom Alsop returning from illness to strengthen the batting I like Hampshire here.
I also like Hampshire in the battle of the wicket keepers. Adam Wheater has scores of 90 and 41 in this competition and he has batted ok in the T20 as well whereas Gareth Roderick has struggled apart from in his last match where he made 64 against a pretty rudderless Middlesex attack.
Wheater is generally well suited to batting at three in the modern one day game whereas one day cricket isn’t the fore of Roderick. With Hampshire offering from decent bowling at Roderick in this match I have a feeling he’ll struggle to outscore Wheater.
Non TV Matches – South Group
There are three other matches in the South Group on Tuesday with Kent hosting Somerset at Canterbury and Surrey facing Sussex at Guildford in matches that are both 11am starts while Glamorgan welcome Middlesex across the Severn Bridge for a 2pm start in Cardiff.
I was tempted by Kent in their match but I read that they are resting David Griffiths which is less than ideal so that becomes a no punt match in terms of the result itself with the depth that Somerset offer with the bat and nothing really floats my boat at Guildford.
There is one I like though at Canterbury particularly with the news that Griffiths is being rested and that is over 7.5 sixes which is a bit of a nonsense line given that in the other 50 over match to be played here this season there were 16 sixes on Sunday when Glamorgan were in town.
These two have already played on this ground this season in the T20 where Somerset put up 197 and Kent chased it down with over two overs to spare. Both plundered the sixes on that occasion and I see no reason why they won’t continue to do it here.
We saw how accessible the boundaries are here in the live T20 game last week and I’ve every reason to believe we’ll see at least eight more balls clear the ropes before this one is done.
I will take the home side in the other game too. Glamorgan are playing some really nice stuff in one day cricket this season and in this competition they have played three and won them all and they’ve won batting first and chasing. Middlesex in contrast have played three times and only beaten a Gloucestershire side who have looked pretty ordinary so I don’t go much for that as a form guide.
The secret behind Glamorgan’s success has been the strength of their bowling attack where Timm van der Gugten, Michael Hogan and Graham Wagg offer a really strong seam trio. Dean Cosker supports them nicely while they have the right balance in their batting.
Middlesex will put up runs against most sides but if there is one side they won’t put them up against it could be this Glamorgan attack and with that in mind I’ll take the confident home side in the hope they keep McCullum and co quiet enough to win.
Non TV Matches – North Group
Just the one match in this group on Tuesday which comes in the form of Yorkshire vs Northamptonshire at Scarborough. Yorkshire have been pretty ordinary in one day cricket this season and on a normal day I would have taken Northants to win this.
It isn’t a normal day though because Northants are ravaged by injuries to some pretty important players so that forced me to swerve them and just sit this group out on Tuesday.
Tips
Back Hampshire to beat Gloucestershire for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Ladbrokes
Back them here:
VOID – Back A.Wheater (-0.5runs) to beat G.Roderick for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Coral
VOID – Back Kent vs Somerset – Over 7.5 sixes for a 4/10 stake at 2.05 with Coral
Back them here:
Back Glamorgan to beat Middlesex for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Winner Sports
Back them here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2016
