The second season of The Hundred continues on Tuesday evening when two teams who won their opening match meet at Headingley as the Northern Superchargers play host to the Trent Rockets with the winners joining the London Spirit at the top of the table.
The losers are still firmly in the mix to make the top three but the initial aim of every team in the competition will be to target top spot and pick up the bye into the final which comes from securing that spot.
Northern Superchargers
I had the Northern Superchargers down as genuine dark horses for this competition when the tournament began but after seeing their opening win it might be wise to upgrade them to potential title contenders. Much of that will revolve around how well they go when England come along to take the likes of Matthew Potts for Test duty but in the meantime they look like a team who could do some damage this season.
They beat what looked a good Manchester Originals side on paper, although whether they are going to flatter to deceive remains to be seen given their awful display on Monday evening, but it wasn’t that they beat them necessarily, it was what they had left in the hutch when they won the match. They chased down 162 with six balls to spare and still had Adam Hose, Dwayne Bravo and Roelof van der Merwe to come to the crease. They look to have all bases covered with the ball too but it should be acknowledged that there will be no Harry Brook in this match.
Trent Rockets
It wasn’t just the Northern Superchargers who looked good in their opening match. The Trent Rockets looked very impressive as well and saw off a potentially tougher opponent in Birmingham Phoenix, although we will only know that for sure once we have seen the Phoenix play a second match. What we could pick up from the opening game is that the Rockets look good with the ball and I guess that is the acid test for potential champions of this.
I say that because with 20 balls fewer than a T20 the likelihood of getting bowled out is much less so teams can hit from the off and keep on hitting. Trent certainly have depth in their batting but the test for them here will be to replicate their levels with the ball. There are two reasons for that. The first one is that they are without Rashid Khan for this match while the second one is that Headingley has become a graveyard for the bowlers. With Dawid Malan and Joe Root in the same team can the Rockets score enough runs in a shootout?
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Key Players
With Harry Brook not around for the Northern Superchargers in this match there is a chance that David Willey will move up the order to give it some pasty. His new ball spell will be key too. If he can rip the top two or three out the Superchargers might be able to control the run rate.
Alex Hales broke the back of the run chase for the Trent Rockets in the last game and if he gets in here he could do some serious damage on these smaller boundaries. A spot at the top of the England T20 order could be up for grabs and another big knock for Hales here won’t go unnoticed.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets in this match with the first of them being over 11.5 sixes. I expect this to land fairly comfortably because Headingley has been an absolute bloodbath for bowlers since the pandemic arrived. There is no such thing as a bad batting pitch here at Headingley and with Yorkshire having taken their Royal London and recent Championship games around the county, unlike some grounds the conditions here should be spot on for batting. We have all the power we need for a dozen sixes here with Alex Hales, Adam Lyth, Michael Pepper, Adam Hose, Colin Munro, Tom Kohler-Cadmore and David Willey all capable of smoking a long ball. Mishits go for sixes here though so I’m expecting a dozen of them here.
The other bet I like is the 16/1 on Adam Hose to be the top scorer for the Northern Superchargers. He was in superb form for the Birmingham Bears in the Vitality Blast and one of his incredible innings was an 88 off 35 balls against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge. Two members of that Notts attack will be on show for the Rockets here which is helpful. Hose can play the rebuild innings but as he showed in the Blast he can smack it out of the park and with the Rockets missing Rashid Khan there is a good chance for someone in the middle order to land the top scoring honours. At 16/1 I’ll pay to see if it is Hose.
Tips
Back Over 11.5 sixes for a 4/10 stake at 1.75 with BetVictor
Back it here:
Back A.Hose Top Northern Superchargers Batter for a 1/10 stake at 17.00 with Betway
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