The opening match of The Hundred 2024 sees the defending champions Oval Invincibles getting their title defence up and running when they take on a potentially dangerous Birmingham Phoenix side at The Oval.
Oval will be looking to lay a bit of a marker for their title defence down here while the Phoenix will be looking to show that this could be the year that they come good and claim the trophy for the first time.
Where to watch
This is one of the matches which will be shown on both the Sky Sports Cricket and BBC Two channels. The build-up begins on both channels at 6pm ahead of the first ball at 6.30pm.It will also be shown on the Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Mix channels.
Oval Invincibles
There is no doubt that Oval Invincibles were the best team in the competition last season but as with pretty much all of the franchise tournaments around the world the turnover of player is vast and it will be interesting to see how the defending champions look with some new players in their ranks. With only four home matches in this tournament there is always an emphasis on winning the home games so the pressure is on Oval right from the get go.
They have brought in some good players with Dawid Malan certainly strengthening their batting while their bowling looks to have the required depth for this competition, although they are going to be without Gus Atkinson who is away with England. For him to be the only one missing to England duty is a result though. It remains to be seen whether Spencer Johnson is around for this one as he was appearing in the Major League Cricket competition as recently as the early hours of Monday morning.
Birmingham Phoenix
I would suggest that this is the season where there has been least expectation on the Birmingham Phoenix coming into the tournament. The main reason for that is because they are without a trio of big players who are on international duty. The other reason is that injuries and boards playing silly bugger haven’t helped their cause either. This is a chance to show their squad depth though and build a platform to build on when their big players return.
There will be no Jamie Smith, Ben Duckett or Chris Woakes while Will Smeed is injured and Naseem Shah was pulled out so late it is unknown whether Tim Southee has arrived in time for this match. The Birmingham batting will be tested here because it is going to rely on some of their all-rounders at some point you would imagine. They do look to have a decent bowling attack even without Woakes though, although they are going to need it at The Oval.
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Key Players
Will Jacks was harshly booted from the England T20 World Cup team after just two matches, one of which he didn’t bat in and the second he was dented in confidence from being asked to bowl an over he should never have had to bowl. He has a chance to show he is one of the best in England still here.
Moeen Ali might be getting to the stage where he is phased out by the England setup but he has a chance to show that doing that ahead of the Champions Trophy might be a premature move. He comes in here off the back of a dazzling ton for Birmingham in the Blast.
Betting
I am expecting a high scoring opening match to the tournament here even though there has been a bit of rain around the capital on the morning of the contest. There have been five Blast matches on this ground this season that we not affected by the rain and three of those had first innings scores of 170 or more and another had one of 163 so there are plenty of runs as always at The Oval where the outfield is quick and a short boundary often appears somewhere.
Spencer Johnson doesn’t look like he’ll be available for the Invincibles in this match while it is unknown whether Tom Curran is fit either so two key death bowlers could be missing for the champions. Both these teams look like they are going to bat quite deep with the potential for one of the Curran brothers to bat at eight while James Fuller could fill that spot for the Phoenix. These are two teams who I expect to improve with the ball the longer the tournament goes on so a run target of 307.5 in this opening game looks perfectly achievable.
Tips
Back Over 307.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
