It is the final day of fixtures before the halfway break in the Royal London One Day Cup on Wednesday with half a dozen more matches in the 50 over competition to determine who will go forward in a good position when the tournament returns in July and who has work to do.
There are no televised matches on Wednesday but we have a couple of early starts and four being played out under lights. We’ll have to do some shower dodging along the way too which isn’t ideal.
North Group Matches
The highlight in the North Group on Wednesday is the Roses battle as Lancashire and Yorkshire meet at Old Trafford. Lancashire thrashed Yorkshire here in the NatWest T20 Blast earlier in the season and will be bang up for a repeat here although that would depend on the weather which isn’t great.
If the weather was fine I’d have chanced Lancashire because Yorkshire played on Tuesday and will have had to travel across the Pennines ready for this one which is not ideal but with the weather expected to come in during the evening I don’t really want to be getting messed around by DLS.
Before that match Worcestershire and Leicestershire play at New Road. When there is rain around I never really want to get involved in matches at New Road because of the flooding so while I fancy the home side I will sit this one out too. The prices look about right in the match between Durham and Nottinghamshire up at the Riverside as they do at Edgbaston where Warwickshire host Derbyshire.
South Group Matches
I was very tempted by Kent at Essex even though they played on Tuesday but the weather looks set to spoil that match as well which isn’t good. I’m still tempted by Kent but with the forecasts suggesting the rain will come in the middle of the afternoon and this one beginning at 11am the toss is going to be too important for my liking.
I’m going to get involved in the other match though which sees Hampshire hosting Surrey. I sided with Hampshire on Tuesday which wasn’t a good decision as they lost to Gloucestershire by 10 runs.
Hampshire might only have lost by 10 runs but they were beaten much worse than that. Their bowling and fielding efforts were bordering on pathetic and while their lengthy batting line up almost got them home it would have been burglary if Hampshire had won that.
Having only finished around 9.30pm they will have had to pack up and head back from Bristol to Southampton so we’re looking at the early hours before they would have got to bed and now they have to be ready to start again at 2pm here. That is a really tough schedule.
Admittedly Surrey also played on Tuesday but they won so their spirits will be high and the trip from Guildford to Southampton isn’t much of one. Surrey also played in the early game on Tuesday as well.
In Jason Roy, Kumar Sangakkara, the Curran brothers, Zafar Ansari and Ravi Rampaul, Surrey have some really good players at this level and they can see off an injury ravaged and low in confidence Hampshire side.
Tips
Back Surrey to beat Hampshire for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Ladbrokes
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