The quarter finals of the Vitality Blast get underway on Thursday evening when the North Group table toppers Birmingham Bears look to seal a place at their own finals day party when they entertain Essex at Edgbaston.
Essex managed to get into the quarter finals on the last day of the group stage and now they will be looking for a return to finals day and a chance to win the title they last won in 2020 next weekend. We’re all set for a cracking quarter final here.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Main Event, Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Action channels with the build-up on the latter beginning just prior to a 6.30pm start.
Birmingham Bears
The Birmingham Bears look like impressive winners of the North Group having registered 11 wins from their 14 matches but there were three or four of those games which could easily have gone the other way and had they done so the Bears might not even be in the quarter final so there is a question over whether Birmingham are actually as good as record suggests that they are. What has gone before doesn’t matter though and the one thing the Bears carry into this match with them is winning momentum.
Home advantage is usually crucial as the regular season gets played but given the short turnaround between the group stage and the quarter final there often isn’t a fresh pitch prepared for this particular round of games so that can sometimes distort things. The Bears will need to bat as good as they can do here because if they have left themselves vulnerable anywhere this season it has been by not maximising their efforts with the willow.
Essex
The Essex Eagles haven’t been as consistent as the Birmingham Bears this season but I guess that is understandable when you consider the size of their home ground at Chelmsford. If you lose the toss at the wrong time there you are immediately up against it given how hard it is to defend any score there so we have to cut them some slack in the consistency stakes. The main thing is that they won enough matches to finish in the top four and secure their place in this side.
The positive for Essex is they have scored a lot of runs this season. You do get that in the South though with Chelmsford, Taunton, Canterbury, Hove and if you get Middlesex at an outground there are plenty of batting paradises on show, but you’ve still got to make the most of that. The area of concern is that their bowling has surrendered runs a lot of the time this term. Some of it is down to size of grounds they have played on and quality of the batting pitches but it is still a concern.
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Key Players
Sam Hain has been one of the best batters in the competition this season so Birmingham will be delighted that he returned from injury ahead of the final group game at the weekend and has been named in the squad for this match.
Dan Lawrence was called into the England squad for the Test match this week but England named their team without him in it early enough for him to be released in time for him to join up with the Essex squad for this game and potentially be a key man.
Betting
Matches at Edgbaston this season have either been high scoring when games have been played on fresh pitches or very low scoring when they have been on used wickets and with all the cricket that has been played at the venue recently, coupled with the fact that this match wasn’t in the pitch schedule until a week or so ago, I’ve got to think this will be on something of a used pitch, potentially one on the outskirts of the square with the pitch for finals day likely to be being prepared already.
I think that brings Essex massively into the game. They have the best spinner in the county game if this is a used pitch and could easily field three front line spinners without weakening their side and then have Dan Lawrence in reserve too while if it is a fresh pitch then Essex bat deep and will fancy their chances against anyone. Birmingham have used their superior class to win matches they floundered a touch in this season but they are not that much better than Essex, if they are better than them at all. If this is a used pitch the absence of Danny Briggs due to injury and the potential troubles of Dan Mousley go against Birmingham so I like Essex at a tidy price here.
Tips
Back Essex to beat Birmingham Bears for a 3/10 stake at 2.50 with Coral
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