The Hundred heads to Headingley for the final time this season on Tuesday evening for what is a massive clash between the Northern Superchargers and the Welsh Fire as we head closer to the end of the first phase of the tournament.
The stakes are high for both teams here. The Superchargers need to win and do so by a monster margin to keep their campaign alive. Welsh Fire also need to win to stay alive. Whoever does win will then need the Southern Brave to lose on Wednesday to progress.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Main Event, Sky Cricket and Sky Mix channels with the build-up beginning at 6pm ahead of the 6.30pm start time.
Northern Superchargers
What did promise to be a successful campaign for the Northern Superchargers has come to a bit of a disappointing damp squib. They can mathematically make it through still but the margins they would need to win by to stay alive just aren’t realistic. It does mean that they can play out this final game with freedom and at least look to end with a win. Players will be playing for contracts too so professional pride should be there at the very least.
The problem for the Superchargers is that their powerful, strong batting unit has deserted them when they have needed it the most and they have suffered a couple of really heavy defeats. You can afford to lose in this tournament but with a shortage of matches heavy losses are really impactful. They will hope their batting can come good here because if it does they certainly have the quality with the ball to get the job done and close out the season with a win.
Welsh Fire
The Welsh Fire went into their final two matches of the season knowing that they needed to win them both to stand any chance of making the knockout stages, but also that they would have to do so without their Pakistan pair of Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf. They did the business in the opening game of the two when they held their nerve to see off the London Spirit and now they go into this one looking for a win to take then into the Eliminator. The more they win by, the more they will ask of the Southern Brave on Wednesday.
Despite losing their standout Pakistan pair, the Welsh Fire bowling unit has still shown enough to suggest that they can be more than competitive here. The problem is even when they have won their batting hasn’t looked terribly convincing. On a high scoring ground on what is expected to be a glorious day, the Fire are going to need their whole unit to deliver the goods and contribute to a defining score. If that happens then the Cardiff franchise should feel good about their chances of coming out on top in this one.
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Key Players
Matt Short started the season off like a house on fire but much like his team his form has dipped completely in the second part of the campaign. The Superchargers will be looking for some pyrotechnics from their opening batter in this one.
Jonny Bairstow hasn’t had the impact in The Hundred that he or the Welsh Fire would have wanted but there is still time for him to come good. An outing on his home county ground might be just the catalyst the England star needs to spark him into life.
Betting
I’m expecting a high scoring game here. Usually in this situation I would back the boundaries but the bookmakers are well and truly clued up on the permutations involved in this game so rather than take the boundaries I will take the over on the runs line. The line for this one is 294.5 which feels a little on the low side both when you consider that the women have just scored 144/4 in the first match here and also that both first innings scores on this ground this season have been in the 180s.
If we get another score in the 180s, and both teams will be looking to hit that range batting first to give themselves the chance of doing what they need to on the net run rate, then we would be needing just over a run a ball in the second innings for the over to be covered. Even if we don’t get to 180 in the first innings these two sides should be capable of 150 and then it is game on from there. This is a high scoring ground and the state of the table dictates these two teams need to score big so I like the over here.
Tips
Back Over 294.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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