We have taken a look at the outright market and the offering for the top batters for The Hundred and ahead of the new season beginning on Tuesday there is just enough time to have a look at the top bowler betting options.
Tymal Mills had another wonderful season in what was actually a frustrating campaign for the Southern Brave last term and he led the wicket taking for the season by three wickets despite the Brave not making the final.
Recent Winners
2023 – Tymal Mills
2022 – Paul Walter, Jordan Thompson & Tom Helm
2021 – Adam Milne, Marchant de Lange, Adil Rashid & Rashid Khan
Market Leaders
Rashid Khan had to miss last season because of injury but he is going to be back in the Trent Rockets colours this term and is the favourite to be the leading bowler in the tournament but he is likely to miss the first match because he is away at the Major League Cricket campaign where his MI New York team are battling to extend their season. That immediately puts me off backing him but as we saw in the Test match, Trent Bridge isn’t the best home ground for spin bowling either.
Sean Abbott looks to be a good pick up for the Birmingham Phoenix and with him having spent the first half of the summer with Surrey he will be adjusted to the conditions nicely. He should be a regular feature for the Phoenix too as they are not blessed with massive options for the bowling department, especially seam wise. Abbott only played eight matches for Surrey in the Blast but he took 15 wickets and if he can replicate that from eight matches with the Phoenix he would have every chance of being the leading bowler.
Nathan Ellis has proven himself to be one of the death bowlers in the country in his time with Hampshire but he has not represented the former T20 champions this season so the Australian will be turning up for London Spirit duty a little cold, particularly as he didn’t exactly have an overworked schedule at either the Indian Premier League or the T20 World Cup over the last three months. He will pick up cheap wickets at the death but if he starts slowly that could catch him out in what I fancy will be a strong betting heat.
Adam Zampa usually goes very well for whichever franchise teams he represents and the Oval Invincibles bowler is expected to go well in The Hundred this season. Zampa only played three matches for Oval last term but took six wickets in those outings. He has been outfoxing batters all over the world since then and it would be a surprise if he is not heavily among the wickets, especially if the recent heat hangs around the capital for another couple of weeks.
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.
Narrowing the Field
Unlike with the batsmen, there isn’t really too many ways to narrow down the field here. There aren’t many bowler friendly tracks in England at the present time and the ones that there are, notably Cardiff and Edgbaston are only such because of the amount of cricket that gets played on those grounds rather than any natural assistance in the wickets.
With that in mind, the only real way to narrow down this field is to choose whether to take seamers or spinners and to make sure that we get on players who we think will be in the semi-final and hopefully the final. By and large it has been the seamers who have gone the best in the opening three seasons of the tournament and I suspect that is largely down to some cheaper wickets in the death sets of the innings.
Profile
I’m not convinced there is going to be a huge amount for the spinners in this tournament, certainly not in terms of assistance in the pitches, and any wickets they do pick up will come from false shots or the need to score so I’m firmly in the camp of picking seamers for this tournament. There isn’t really a wicket which has a huge reputation for being bowler friendly so other than maybe go with the longer boundaries where mishits might fall into the lap of the fielder there isn’t a huge amount to go by.
Betting
Tymal Mills won this market by three wickets last season which in a maximum 10 games season is quite a winning margin and I have seen no drop off from him this term in the Blast so I wouldn’t be surprised if he goes in again at 16/1 in this campaign. Mills is currently the third leading wicket taker in the Blast and with the quality of the Southern Brave attack he could very well be shooting out the tail in a few of these matches. That isn’t to suggest that he can’t get wickets with the new ball either because he can. I think he is bowling as well as ever at the minute and with me having already nailed my colours to the Brave mast I see no reason why Mills can’t go in for a second year in succession.
David Payne is one of the best death bowlers in the country and has the second most wickets in the Vitality Blast this season and is largely the reason why Gloucestershire have made it into the quarter finals of that competition. He now dons the Welsh Fire red for a month and I think he can do some damage down in Cardiff. Payne has a good yorker, a good chance of pace and is clever enough to bowl to his field. He picked up eight wickets in seven matches last term but it was a stop-start campaign for him and the pitches were much more tired than they are heading into this campaign. He is someone certain to play a big role for the Welsh Fire without Shaheen Afridi around and so the Gloucestershire man at 33/1 makes a lot of sense.
Tips
Back T.Mills Top Tournament Bowler (e/w) for a 1.5/10 stake at 17.00 with Bet365 (1/4 1-4)
Back D.Payne Top Tournament Bowler (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Bet365 (1/4 1-4)
