The last two teams to get their campaign underway in The Hundred do so on Friday evening when the Northern Superchargers play host to the former winners Trent Rockets at Headingley to round off the first set of games.
The Superchargers propped up the whole competition last season while the Rockets couldn’t build on their successful campaign of 2022. Both teams will be looking to get off to a winning start and set themselves up for a big tournament.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Cricket channel with the very brief build-up beginning after the Test at 6.30pm ahead of the first ball which is at 6.35pm.
Northern Superchargers
This could be a defining season for England cricket for the Superchargers because they are coached by Andrew Flintoff for the first time and he could very well progress to lead his country at some point. When he returns from Test duty, Harry Brook will skipper the Headingley based franchise for the first time and there are murmurings that he could be in line to replace Jos Buttler as the England white ball skipper so we could get some looks to the future here.
The Superchargers look to have a very explosive batting order and that is necessary at Headingley where some of the best white ball pitches in the country are housed at the minute. Their big test will be whether they can quieten enough sides down when they have the ball in their hands to be effective enough to get the job done. If they can then this is a team who could quickly get a head of steam up, although it might not come until Brook and Ben Stokes are back from international duty and Nicholas Pooran arrives.
Trent Rockets
The Trent Rockets were the best team in the competition in 2022 but they flattered to deceive a little bit in 2023 and have decided to go down a bit of a different route this term with two key players in that title winning campaign disposed of in Daniel Sams and Dawid Malan. Had he not been injured Sams would have been in the opposition for this match which would have been interesting. It will be interesting to see if the new look Rockets can emulate the quality of the previous ones.
I think it is fair to say that they will improve as the tournament goes on, not just because some new players need to settle into their new surroundings but also because Rashid Khan is only just on his way to England and might not make it in time to feature in this opening game. Joe Root is also with the Test squad so the star names who haven’t been globetrotting in recent times will need to stand up and offer plenty to the cause here.
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Key Players
Jason Roy has a point to prove over the next few weeks having been disposed of by England and also the Oval Invincibles and he would have a good chance to start to do that at the top of the Northern Superchargers order here.
Sam Hain has been in sparkling form for the Birmingham Bears in the Vitality Blast and he should get the chance to show what he can do for the Trent Rockets while Joe Root is away with the Test team. He’ll hope to fill his boots in this one.
Betting
We haven’t yet seen a match that has been full of sixes but I think that could change here because this is a small ground and there are some big hitters on show here. You wouldn’t say that there is a real threat in either bowling attack while we wait for the arrival of Rashid Khan and even then he can only bowl 20 balls. This is generally the best batting wicket in the country at the minute so I would expect the runs to flow here and the sixes to as well.
The line for this one is 12.5 but with the likes of Jason Roy, Matt Short, Adan Hose, Jordan Clark, Alex Hales, Tom Banton, Rovman Powell and Adam Lyth who will be on his home ground we are not short of big hitters batting for us in this one. The weather is expected to be decent for this match as well so this should be the first match in the tournament that is high scoring and that sees the batters dominate the bowling. I like the over in sixes here.
Tips
Back Over 12.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Betfair
