Two teams who had completely contrasting fortunes in their opening match meet in The Hundred at Old Trafford on Monday evening when the Manchester Originals go up against the Trent Rockets in a repeat of the 2022 final.
The Originals were absolutely battered in their opening match while the Rockets were far too good for the Northern Superchargers. It will be interesting to see if that form holds up or whether there will be a change to the book.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the three Sky channels of Main Event, Cricket and Mix with the build-up on all three beginning at 6pm ahead of the first ball at 6.35pm.
Manchester Originals
Having made the final of this tournament in the previous two years, the Manchester Originals might well have been eyeing up finally going one better this time around but those hopes have already taken a couple of dents. The first one came before their opening match when news broke that Jos Buttler was going to miss the start of the tournament, and possibly all of it, and then the heavy beating they took in that first game already has them chasing the pack a little.
Once the Buttler news broke, it looked like a huge hole had been left in the batting of the Manchester Originals and they showed that in that first game. They never got going with the bat and you could visibly see that once Phil Salt went early there was little in the way of form players to follow and the fact that the number nine top scored said it all. Manchester looked ok with the ball but they never had enough runs on the board to be judged on really.
Trent Rockets
It was the complete opposite for the Trent Rockets in the opening match. They were in complete control against the Northern Superchargers from start to finish and they will be looking for a repeat of that performance which would surely be enough to get them a second straight win and send them alongside the Oval Invincibles on four points from their two matches. They would actually go to the top of the table on net run rate so that is a decent incentive for the Rockets here.
The Rockets were imperious with the bat in that opening game. Unlike some of the teams in this competition they had a batting unit which was in good form and they still have Joe Root to come into the line up. They only really needed to stay upright with the ball to get the job done and that happened and they are expected to have Rashid Khan in their ranks for this match so there is a lot of positives for the 2022 winners already.
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Key Players
We saw in the opening match just how important it is that Phil Salt gets the Manchester Originals off to a start with the bat because there was an element of dominos in behind him once he was out early. The Originals need the stand-in captain here.
Sam Hain went into the first game for the Trent Rockets knowing that he had to deliver the goods in order to stay in the team once Joe Root came back and the man who has a criminally low number of England caps can do his chances no harm with another big innings here.
Betting
Given that there is the women’s match before this men’s match and both being played in baking hot temperatures in this part of the world I think the pitch could slow right up by the time that this one takes place in which case I’m thinking the runs might be a little lower than might normally be the case. Usually the batters feed on the very fast outfield here but with the pitch under an intense sun throughout the day it has to slow up and the ball might stick in the pitch a little which isn’t ideal for run scoring. The one thing these two sides have is good new ball bowlers and no shortage of spin depth so that would keep the runs down. Throw in that the Manchester batting has a huge hole in it and I think under 288.5 runs is a solid play here.
Given the hole that is in the Manchester Originals batting I am almost obliged to try and take someone down their order to top score for them and the man in question is Jamie Overton at 14/1. Overton is playing just as a batter at the minute after a back issue earlier in the summer so he has to deliver when he gets to the crease and if the pitch does slow up it could well be someone with extreme power who is the one to exploit it. Had Joe Clarke taken a dolly catch in the first Manchester game Overton would have top scored rather than getting mugged off by the number nine Scott Currie. I’ll pay to see if the stars align for him a little better here.
Tips
Back Under 288.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back J.Overton Top Manchester Originals Batter for a 1/10 stake at 15.00 with Bet365
