There is a full round of Vitality Blast action on Friday night in what is the last day of play in the competition ahead of a week off for a round of matches in the County Championship. That means the 16 counties on show will be even more eager to pick up a win to take into the break with them.
Although the Test match gets the TV attention earlier in the day, there will be cameras are one of the matches in the evening and then the other seven can all be streamed via the service that the counties provide, on a big night in the competition.
North Group
Lancashire head the way in the North Group and they will be looking to open up a three point gap at the top of the section and really ram home their chances of not just qualifying for the quarter finals but also hosting one. They head up to Durham looking to maintain their unbeaten record. The match of the night in this group comes from Edgbaston where the third placed Birmingham Bears play host to fourth placed Yorkshire. Given that one of those are going to drop points it could be a night for the chasing pack to strengthen their position. Leicestershire welcome local rivals Nottinghamshire to Grace Road in one of the matches while Derbyshire head to Worcestershire in the other one.
South Group
It is the South Group where the TV game comes from and it is a big game for the two teams involved as Gloucestershire in third head to Hove to take on a Sussex side who have slipped to sixth but who are only one point behind the Gladiators. Just two points separate third to eighth in this group and with the leaders Surrey not in action this feels like a big evening in this section. Two teams not involved in that logjam are second placed Somerset and bottom of the pile Kent. They meet at Taunton. That means the other two matches are pretty important. Fourth placed Essex play host to seventh placed Middlesex while fifth placed Hampshire head to Glamorgan who currently occupy second from bottom but will move above their opponents with a win.
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TV Match Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets in the TV match on Friday evening with the first of those being on Sussex to win the match. I regularly bang on about how it is hard to back up a performance from the night before one day later and that might be even more the case for Gloucestershire who got victory pulled from under their feet by rivals Somerset on Thursday. We saw in that match that Gloucestershire’s death bowling was left wanting and I’ve mentioned a couple of times recently that Gloucestershire have had one or two injuries too many to their attack and it is beginning to hurt them. Sussex are anything but at full strength either with the likes of Luke Wright, Jofra Archer and Ollie Robinson missing but that frailty at the death will at least give Sussex the chance to score big runs. With Obed McCoy and Tymal Mills in the Sussex side, if this does come down to a battle of the death overs you would expect Sussex to come out on top in the game. At odds against with freshness on their side I’ll take the hosts here.
I’m going to look to take advantage of that potential frailty at the death and take Harrison Ward to be the leading Sussex batter. He hasn’t top scored for Sussex this season but three of his last four efforts have been extremely creditable and in the other one they were chasing 200 and there wasn’t time to play himself in. The other three innings have yielded 23*, 22* and 31, the two not out scores were in winning efforts so they could have been more on another day. This Sussex line up isn’t the strongest and if Gloucestershire get stuck in early then Ward, who can play the rebuild knock or the crash it and smash it innings, could be the one to prosper.
Other Match Betting
I’ll take one from the other matches on Friday and that comes from down at Chelmsford where although I was anything but impressed with Essex at Hampshire on Thursday night, I do expect them to rebound on home soil when they entertain a Middlesex side whose good start to the season was just what I thought it might have been at the time – a fortunate early spell rather than the sign of a team who were going to contend in this competition.
To be fair to Middlesex they put up a decent showing in defeat to Surrey on Thursday evening but Eoin Morgan and Toby Roland-Jones don’t play successive matches in as many days so they will both be missing for this match which leaves their batting looking very light and their bowling not a great deal stronger. Essex left Daniel Sams out on Thursday evening potentially to save him for this one but whether he comes back or not Middlesex aren’t the best players of spin and Essex have three decent spinners. They play their home conditions well and can come out on top in this one.
Tips
Back Sussex to beat Gloucestershire for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with William Hill
Back them here:
Back H.Ward Top Sussex Batter for a 1/10 stake at 17.00 with Boylesports
Back him here:
Back Essex to beat Middlesex for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Bet365
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