The third match of the new season of The Hundred takes us to Old Trafford for the first time as the Manchester Originals begin their quest to go one better than the last two campaigns when they host the Welsh Fire.
Manchester Originals have been beaten in the last two finals and will be hoping it is third time lucky as they look to finally get their hands on the title while Welsh Fire are an improving franchise who will be looking to deliver their best campaign to date.
Where to watch
The match will be shown on a number of channels with BBC Two covering the game as well as the Sky Sports Main Event, Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Mix channels. The build-up on each of them begins at 6pm ahead of the 6.30pm start.
Manchester Originals
I think it is fair to say that Manchester Originals are the nearly team of The Hundred so far having reached the final on two occasions but coming up dry each time. They would have been looking strongly at a third tilt at the trophy but the news that Jos Buttler is going to miss some of the tournament, and some reports are suggesting all of it, is not going to help their cause, not least because they haven’t been able to sign a replacement at the time of writing.
That will significantly dent their batting and will put a lot of pressure on Phil Salt, who is expected to take the captaincy, to deliver the goods. Another thing that will add pressure is the bowling unit just looks a little light on paper heading into the competition with injuries to that department not exactly helping matters either. It remains to be seen whether the Originals will be good enough but you would imagine however they fare they will be better a few games into the competition.
Welsh Fire
This feels like a big campaign for the Welsh Fire. They have had three seasons and are yet to make the playoffs in The Hundred but there was clear progression under Mike Hussey last season and another year of rebuilding through the draft should lead to further improvement which could well mean that this is the first time they will finish in the top three. They will not only be bettered by the work that they did in the draft but also having the likes of Jonny Bairstow around all season will help too.
If anything, the Fire suddenly have an avalanche of riches to use with the bat whereas in the past they have had a shortage of batters and all of the ones they did have wanted to play the same position. The question mark over them comes in the form of the bowling when Shaheen Shah Afridi let them down and someone needs to pick up that slack but Matt Henry is a useful performer in UK conditions and David Payne looks to be in good form.
Special Offer
Open a new Sporting Index account and bet £10 on The Hundred (min odds 1/2) to get £20 in free bets (2x£10 free bets) to use on any sports market! Click the image below to take advantage of this great offer! 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Responsibly.
Key Players
Phil Salt is going to have a lot of pressure on him to deliver in this tournament if Jos Buttler is out for the whole of it. He is pretty experienced now and made 70 in his first match for Lancashire last week so he is in good form.
David Willey has been in brilliant form with the ball for Northamptonshire the longer the Vitality Blast has gone on and while he hasn’t cracked it with the bat too often we know he has plenty of fireworks in him so a good all-round performance will give the Welsh Fire every chance here.
Betting
We have seen two home wins in the competition so far and I suspect that will be a theme of the tournament because sides have been able to draft to their own conditions a lot more now, however this is one of those occasions where I think the away team are the ones to be on because I just think that the Welsh Fire are going to be the more settled side given the upheaval that the late notice of the Jos Buttler injury will cause to the Manchester Originals.
If that had happened a couple of weeks ago then they might well have been able to account for it but I’m not sure they will be able to for this game. Even without that injury I wasn’t convinced by the depths with the ball that the Originals have whereas the Fire have no such issues in that regard and if this turns into a high scoring shootout they are likely to have that covered too with David Willey and Roelof van der Merwe batting down the order. Welsh Fire just look better balanced and better suited to this one for me.
Tips
Back Welsh Fire to beat Manchester Originals for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Bet365
