The new competition of English cricket, The Hundred, continues on Sunday with another double header of action and while the weather is set to impact the first game of the day, there is no issue for the second one as the Manchester Originals host the Birmingham Phoenix.
This is the second match for both teams with the Originals looking for their first win of the competition after losing to the Oval Invincibles in their first game while the Birmingham Phoenix beat the London Spirit in their opener and can assume early control of the competition here.
Manchester Originals
The Manchester Originals could be cut a little bit of slack in that they played in the first match of the competition when nobody had anything to go by in terms of tactics, scores or how the game might or might not be played. As it was they didn’t go down by many so it wasn’t a terrible performance. They will expect to offer up a better showing here, particularly as one or two of their better batsmen were unable to get going at The Oval.
One thing that was immediately apparent was that their batting depth was probably the weakest in the tournament. That won’t matter when the likes of Phil Salt, Jos Buttler or Joe Clarke come off, but when they don’t, as they didn’t on Thursday, the lower order will be exposed and one or two of those have been reputations than what they have delivered on the field recently. They would probably want to change their side but not many of their batsmen bowl which is an issue.
Birmingham Phoenix
The Birmingham Phoenix won their opening match and while you wouldn’t say it was a perfect performance from them, once again it was never likely to be as they tasted the format for the first time. There is improvement to come in all eight sides in the competition but you sense the Phoenix have most of it. I say that because they have been done up with withdrawals, injuries and Covid-19 issues so some of their players haven’t played for a while or are new to the franchise.
What we did see from the Phoenix is that they have plenty of batting depth at their disposal. They will hope to get a couple of senior bowlers back from injury as the competition goes on and if that is the case then they look to have every box ticked. When you consider Chris Cooke batted at eight against the Spirit and that there are a couple of very good spin options among their top order, Birmingham are tooled up to go very well.
Special Offer
Sign up for a Boylesports account to get up to £25 in free bets! Perfect offer for this league! Click the image below for this great offer! New accounts only. 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Key Men
We saw in the first game of the Manchester Originals that their top order needs to produce the goods. That makes Jos Buttler a hugely important figure here. This is his home ground unlike the other batters in the team, while it is also his last game too so he’ll want to go out with a bang.
Adam Milne was absolutely brilliant with the ball for the Birmingham Phoenix in the opening match and they will need him to get them off to a good start here as well given the strength of the top three that the Originals have.
Betting
There isn’t a lot to choose between these sides in these conditions and I actually think this match will be quite close because both teams have three good spin options that they can utilise over the course of the evening. We saw in the recent T20 international here that spin is going to be a feature on these wickets which have seen plenty of cricket in recent times. There is also the women’s match earlier in the day to add to the potential for spin here.
The only difference I can find between these two sides is the batting depth which might just free their key batsmen up enough to deliver the goods. That is heavily in favour of the Birmingham Phoenix and it is interesting that they have two Lancashire stars in their side who will know this ground well. Imran Tahir wasn’t at the races on Friday night but you’d expect him to massively improve for the run which will only further strengthen the Phoenix. I like them here.
Tips
Back Birmingham Phoenix to beat Manchester Originals for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
Back them here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2021
