There isn’t officially a quarter final in The Hundred but the second match in the tournament on Wednesday is one in all but name as the group stage concludes with the Manchester Originals meeting the Oval Invincibles for a place in the Eliminator.
The equation is pretty simple here. The winners head to Southampton to take on the London Spirit on Friday while the losers will be watching the finals with their season done and dusted so everything is on the line here.
Manchester Originals
When they had lost their opening three matches, a season which offered plenty was on its knees for the Manchester Originals but to their credit they have picked up four wins in four successive outings since then and suddenly are favourites to make it through to the Eliminator where they will be looking to replicate the run of the Southern Brave last season who came from the clouds to win the title. Those four Originals wins weren’t just victories, they were by huge margins.
The strange thing about that is that as key players have left for other duties or picked up injuries, Manchester have just got better and better. Their most emphatic win came against the Birmingham Phoenix at Edgbaston on Sunday evening when their batters posted a decent total and their bowlers blitzed the home side. That attack has suddenly stopped shipping runs like they were at the beginning of the season and all of a sudden Originals look a tasty outfit.
Oval Invincibles
While the Oval Invincibles were never in the dire straits that the Manchester Originals season had gotten into, they have been needing to win their last two matches to have a chance of qualifying. Having seen off the London Spirit over the weekend they now know that a win here will see them through to the Eliminator without any concerns over other results or net run rate or anything like that. They can get into the mindset that this is a knockout game.
Oval dominated the Spirit on Saturday courtesy of a really good bowling display. In the run chase they lost a couple of extra wickets more than they would have wanted but that was largely in the chase to up their run rate which at the time would have meant something. The fact it doesn’t now only renders those wickets lost as irrelevant. They will need to bat well as a unit here though rather than rely on Will Jacks which they have done too much this term.
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Key Players
Tristan Stubbs bowled in the powerplay in the game at Edgbaston on Sunday evening and with Rilee Rossouw a key man in the opposition side that tactic might be one Manchester think of here. Add in his firecracker batting style and he’s a big man for the Originals here.
Oval Invincibles have relied a lot on Will Jacks this season but he keeps on coming up trumps for them. His batting will be important here but with two middle order players before left-handed for Manchester it might be that his spin comes into play too.
Betting
I don’t expect a high scoring match here I have to say. I say that for a few reasons. The first of those is because this is a knockout match so things like scoreboard pressure and pressure of the meaning of the match will be in play here. Another reason why I’m not expecting a high scoring match is both these teams have seen key overseas players head off for other outings and are bringing rusty players into the sides. The final reason is because we saw how abrasive and scuffed up the square is here during the Test match and that won’t have changed within a few days.
At this stage of a season the spinners tend to come into play at Old Trafford. Manchester went in with three spinners at Edgbaston the other night while Oval can use three themselves should they wish. There are also a couple of good change of pace bowlers in both teams so unless there is a brain fade somewhere I think the 37.5 boundaries line is just a little on the high side in a match which might have an edgy or nervy feel to it.
Tips
Back Under 37.5 boundaries for a 3/10 stake at 1.73 with William Hill
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