The first round of fixtures are almost upon us as the lengthy county season gets underway. As always the curtain raiser comes in the form of the County Championship where six matches begin on Sunday across the two divisions.
There will be plenty of interest in the tosses for these matches with the new rule implemented from the beginning of the season which means if the away captain chooses to he can elect to bowl first without a toss taking place. In April after a weekend of wet conditions it would be no surprise if many captains take up that option.
Remember all bets in the County Championship are DRAW NO BET unless stated.
Division One
There are three matches in the top flight. Hampshire host Warwickshire at the Ageas Bowl while two touted strugglers meet at the Riverside as Durham entertain Somerset and the other match sees Surrey heading to Trent Bridge to face Nottinghamshire.
I’m going to work on the assumption that at this time of year all three away sides are going to choose to bowl first. You would think Chris Rogers of Somerset and Gareth Batty of Surrey certainly will do as you would bowl first on any day of the season at Durham and the ball is sure to swing at Trent Bridge.
I very nearly took Somerset to beat Durham given that Durham are without Mark Wood and Ben Stokes for that match but Somerset miss both the Overton twins which isn’t ideal. Somerset also have a wretched record up there so suddenly they became easy to swerve.
The prices look about right in the Hampshire vs Warwickshire match, especially with Warwickshire having Ian Bell, Chris Woakes and Jonathan Trott all available from the off this season. Hampshire have the ability to cause a surprise but there’s little value in their price.
There is some value in Surrey at Trent Bridge though. As I said earlier you would think Surrey will be bowling first in this game and while usually they would be facing an ultra-tough batting line up they might be running into Nottinghamshire at the right time.
I say that because James Taylor is out with illness and Alex Hales is resting for another couple of weeks after a busy winter. That is two key cogs in the wheel out of the way. A further boost for Surrey came with the news that Stuart Broad won’t be playing here either.
Surrey have a decent strength attack at their disposal and with Jason Roy and Kumar Sangakkara in their squad they look strong with the bat too. The batting is the key because I don’t think a side will struggle for wickets at Trent Bridge at this time of year.
Surrey should be competitive with the bat and I give them more than a slight edge with the ball so my opening bet of the campaign is on the London side here.
Division Two
There are three matches in Division Two as well which begin on Sunday. Essex entertain Gloucestershire in a match they are heavily odds on to win while Northants welcome Sussex to Wantage Road and Kent head to New Road to face Worcester.
I’m not expecting any of the three favourites to slip up but this new rule about the toss and bowling first could leave Essex and Worcestershire vulnerable. Essex might be slightly less vulnerable as Chelmsford is rarely a minefield in fairness.
You would think Sussex would have too much for Northants and while the bowl first advantage is with a couple of big priced sides in Gloucestershire and Kent I don’t really fancy either terribly strongly so it is going to be a slow start to the campaign for me with just the one bet.
Tips
Back Surrey to beat Nottinghamshire for a 4/10 stake at 2.25 with Ladbrokes
Back them here:
