We have reached the business end of The Hundred league phase as we get set to determine which three teams will progress to the latter stages of the competition. Two teams in the mix meet at Lord’s on Tuesday evening when the London Spirit play host to the Birmingham Phoenix.
These two sides have had good campaigns but if either fails to make the finals then it would have to be considered an ultimate failure. The Spirit are in with a win but a narrow defeat will see them through. Birmingham don’t just have to win, they have to win big to get their run rate above the Spirit’s to go through.
London Spirit
In the main this has been a good season for the London Spirit. When they have been good they have been very good but when they have lost they have put in poor batting efforts. The fact they know where they went wrong in those defeats is certainly no bad thing but the problem with it is they have lost their two gun overseas batters from the start of the tournament and until they deliver a telling batting showing without them there will be some doubts around that unit.
Where the Spirit haven’t been found wanting is with the ball. Even when they have been beaten they have battled hard. In those matches they haven’t been given enough to work with in terms of putting up a defence of the score so it is important that their batters deliver. The Spirit have only bowled first once in the tournament and when they did they kept a powerful Northern Superchargers to 143/5 so that part of their team is working nicely.
Birmingham Phoenix
It looked like the Birmingham Phoenix were going to cruise into the knockout stages of the competition once again but just when it came to taking the bull by the horns and progressing they have hit a bit of a wall. They have lost two of their last three and the fact they were barely competitive in those losses mean that they can’t just win and progress here, the victory needs to be by a pretty significant margin.
Their loss to Manchester Originals on Sunday evening was potentially fatal because the 79 run margin of it completely decimated their net run rate and they have to win by something close to that here to get back on track for the tournament. They won’t be helped in that quest by the absence of Liam Livingstone and it is probably telling that in the two most recent defeats they have been shelled out for 137/9 and 75. When they bat well the Phoenix tend to win but when they don’t they fall miles short.
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Key Players
Dan Lawrence is becoming an increasing force for the London Spirit in the absence of Glenn Maxwell. He is batting in the middle of the order but his spin is being used a lot more by Eoin Morgan and the England man is impacting matches more as a result.
With Liam Livingstone absent if Birmingham Phoenix are going to win this match by the sort of margin they need to then Moeen Ali is going to have to go big with the bat and then he’s going to need to do something with the ball as well.
Betting
We have a unique situation here in that both teams will be trying not only to win but win by the biggest amount possible. The Birmingham Phoenix have to win by a monster margin so when they have the bat in hand they will be swinging it with violence. It might be that they sacrifice a bowler to give them an extra hitter because they are going to have to go bonkers to qualify after their defeat on Sunday. They lose nothing in trying to make it through though.
I would imagine London Spirit will initially look to bat to a total that gets them into the eliminator but then their sights will set about trying to win quickly enough to get their run rate above that of the Trent Rockets so that they can skip the eliminator and go straight through to the final. Expect the bat to be wielded throughout this contest. That is going to lead to the potential for a lot of sixes but then we have to remember that the final is here on Saturday and I would be amazed if the competition lets the final be played on a used pitch and that is likely to be more in the middle of the square which means this might be to one side which will throw up a short boundary. Admittedly it would have been nicer had Liam Livingstone, Glenn Maxwell and Kieron Pollard been available but in Adam Rossington, Dan Lawrence, Ben McDermott, Eoin Morgan, Jordan Thompson, Will Smeed, Moeen Ali, Matthew Wade, Chris Banjamin and Benny Howell there are plenty of rope clearers on show so I expect at least a dozen sixes here.
Tips
Back Over 11.5 sixes for a 5/10 stake at 1.83 with Coral
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