The penultimate group match in The Hundred takes place on Wednesday evening when Old Trafford hosts what is a huge game between the Manchester Originals and the Southern Brave, two sides who have competed in the final of this event before.
The Originals only need to avoid a monster defeat in this match to go through so this one is largely all about the Southern Brave. If they win these two will meet in the Eliminator on Saturday but defeat ends their campaign.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on BBC Two as well as Sky Sports Main Event, Sky Cricket and Sky Mix. The build-up in Manchester begins at 6pm ahead of the 6.30pm start.
Manchester Originals
The Manchester Originals were beaten in the final of this competition last season and they are on course to get another crack at winning the title for the first time. They took a while to pick up speed in this tournament but once the rain relented and allowed them to play regularly they have looked like one of the better teams in the competition. They came home with a flourish in the regular season last year and are appearing to do the same.
The Originals have largely blown this tournament wide open with the bat whereas last term it was the bowling which got the job done for them. The batting has mostly been made up of insane individual efforts so if it all comes together for them then they could be very tough to handle. Although it is the batters making most of the headlines in the tournament, their bowlers are just beginning to warm to the task nicely.
Southern Brave
The Southern Brave were the inaugural champions of this tournament and they will be out to showcase their skills and get back to a place where they can regain their title here. Consistency has been a real issue for the Southampton based outfit since winning the title and even this term when they had their destiny back in their own hands they were beaten by Oval Invincibles and now they are fortunate that they still control their fortunes.
The Brave bowling has come to a more than acceptable level the longer the competition has gone on. That is understandable because they had a few injury issues to overcome along the way but now that they have done that they can’t really ask too much more from their bowlers. Where they have had issues is with the bat. I’m amazed they haven’t pushed James Vince up to open the batting because he is best suited there and not utilising him in that position has been costly.
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Key Players
Jos Buttler has started to look in ominous form in this competition without that really highlight reel innings coming along too often. You get the feeling he is peaking at the right time though and if he gets going here he could soon take the game away from the Southern Brave.
Old Trafford was the home venue for Tim David in the Vitality Blast last season and he will know the pitch and dimensions well enough to come into this one expecting to go well. He showed at the end of the match against the Oval Invincibles that he is hitting the ball well.
Betting
This isn’t necessarily the easiest match to bet on when we consider that the Southern Brave have to win and that brings about extra pressure whereas the Manchester Originals are only really looking to avoid getting tonked and if they happen to win in doing that then so much the better. My gut instinct is that the Originals will win this game because I think their batting is performing much better but the side markets might be the best bet for this one.
The one that I like is for there to be under 305.5 runs. We’ve seen a couple of first innings scores in the 160 range on this ground but then the second innings the batters have found it very tough as the pitch completely loses all pace and I suspect we’ll see something similar here, although with the strength of these two bowling units there is no guarantee that we’ll get the 160 first innings score, especially if it is the Originals who bowl first to this Southern Brave batting unit where only Finn Allen has more than 110 runs to his name after seven matches. I’ll side with the bowlers over the batters in this one.
Tips
Back Under 305.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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