The best day of the year has arrived as on Saturday four teams will head to Edgbaston for the Vitality Blast finals day and the 2022 tournament finale could be the best yet. The opening semi-final sees Yorkshire taking on Lancashire.
These two are bitter rivals at the best of times but when only one of them is going to make the final on Saturday evening we can expect a very competitive opener to finals day between two teams who have been to the final of this competition before.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Cricket channel with the build-up to the opening semi-final beginning at 10.30am and the first ball bowled at 11am.
Yorkshire
Given their route into this semi-final you could be forgiven for wondering if Yorkshire already have their name on this trophy. I say that because they only made it into the knockout stages when Leicestershire were docked two points for repeated disciplinary issues. Then in the quarter final they looked dead and buried but somehow Surrey failed to get over the line against them and here they are just two wins from a first Vitality Blast title.
Yorkshire have been a high scoring machine throughout the season and they might need to be that again here because they are without their captain David Willey who hasn’t been released from international duty. They do have Harry Brook through and Dominic Drakes has come back to fill the overseas spot left by Finn Allen. You sense if Yorkshire are going to win the semi-final they are going to have to come out on top in a shootout.
Lancashire
This has been a rollercoaster of a campaign for Lancashire. It started in brilliant fashion when they were at full strength and it looked like they would cruise to top spot in the North Group. Then England came calling and they started to struggle with some big players away on international duty but they managed to scrape a home quarter final which they dominated even with players still away with England and now they will attempt to make it into another final.
They will welcome three of their England contingent back into the ranks for this semi-final which means that unlike in the quarter final they will have something resembling their strongest bowling attack out in this match. They will still be without Jos Buttler and Liam Livingstone but their batting coped without them in both their final group match and the quarter final. Lancashire have shown they can win high scoring matches or they can defend totals.
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Key Players
Harry Brook is not only one of the best batters in this Yorkshire side but he is one of the best in the country. He is averaging 43.40 in the Blast this season and hitting at a strike rate of 165.64. If he has a big match Yorkshire have every chance.
Steven Croft is the top scorer for Lancashire this term with two runs short of 500. He has four 50s including one in the quarter final win over Essex. He has been with Lancashire for years and will understand this rivalry so will be bang up for this challenge.
Betting
The pitch for finals day is usually an absolute belter and I’m not expecting any different in this edition. It has to be good because there are three matches on it in the one day. I thought the pitch that is being used for finals day was actually going to be used for the England vs India match last week but it wasn’t. They used the same pitch for the quarter final for that so we know there is going to be a short boundary to the Hollies Stand here.
We saw in that England vs India match last week that the boundaries here are accessible, especially the straight ones down to the new pavilion stand and I expect these two teams to go for this semi-final. Both their group meetings were high scoring encounters and there is no shortage of power in either batting unit even without the likes of Livingstone and Willey. The sixes line for this opening semi-final is 11.5 and I expect that to be covered.
Tips
Back Over 11.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Betway
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