The Vitality Blast is in the final week of the group phase of the competition and we head closer towards the conclusion of the opening phase on Tuesday evening when Kent take on Glamorgan at Canterbury.
We already know that both of these sides will exit the competition when the South Group concludes but this is a chance to build a bit of momentum ahead of the One Day Cup which starts next week which both teams have previously gone well in.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Cricket channel with the build-up to the game beginning at 6.25pm ahead of the 6.30pm start.
Kent
When they set out on their campaign this season, Kent certainly won’t have been expecting to be bottom of the South Group after 12 matches. They are a much better side than just three wins in 12 matches but when you let the talent leave that they have done it is going to catch up with you eventually and it looks like this is the time. You get the impression that there is going to be plenty of change at Canterbury at the end of this campaign because they should be competing for white ball trophies.
The big problem that Kent have got to address is that their bowling continually goes the distance. In their last seven full 20 over matches they have shipped nine an over or more and in one of the rain affected affairs that became a 10 over game they conceded 103/5. They have a solid batting unit, albeit one which isn’t as good as it has been in previous years with Jordan Cox elsewhere and Zak Crawley away with England, but no batting department can cope with that sort of scoreboard pressure.
Glamorgan
Glamorgan haven’t had the season that they would have wanted this term either. They have only won one more match than Kent do and when you consider the calibre of overseas player that they have in their ranks that just isn’t good enough. In fact, when you look down their entire order they should be doing much better than they are doing so it wouldn’t be surprising to hear of a number of changes down in Cardiff at the end of the campaign.
Glamorgan go into this match off the back of two ultimately damaging defeats in the last few days which has confirmed that they won’t be progressing to the quarter final. In both of those games their batting let them down quite badly and a team with Marnus Labuschagne and Colin Ingram in it shouldn’t be failing with the bat. It will be interesting to see if they can find some runs here because they don’t look a terrible side if they can do.
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Key Players
Sam Billings is the leading run scorer for Kent this season and he will be looking to deliver a big performance as he is a week away from leading the Oval Invincibles in their title defence in The Hundred.
Marnus Labuschagne is averaging just 16.18 in his 11 innings in the competition this season and Glamorgan will be keen for their star studded overseas player to finally show the quality he has to assist their chances of winning.
Betting
I can’t confess to not being worried about the Glamorgan batting in the last couple of games but I still think the best bet in this match is to assume that runs will be scored. This Kent attack can’t seem to contain anyone and while Glamorgan have made a mess of their last two matches, the second of those was against Gloucestershire who do at least have an international quality bowler opening the bowling for them. I don’t really see much to worry about with the Kent bowling.
The run line for this one is 332.5 but when you consider that no bowler who has bowled 20 or more overs for Glamorgan in this tournament is going at less than eight an over and for Kent, Matt Parkinson is the only regular bowler going at less than nine an over, we should see the runs flow. Canterbury is generally a high scoring ground with three of the five first innings here being 173 or more and two of those weren’t enough to win. There is no competitive pressure on this one so this is a good chance for the batters to swing for the hills and so the over feels like a solid play.
Tips
Back Over 332.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
