There are two days of matches left in the opening half of the Vitality Blast group phase before the break for the County Championship games and the first of those comes along on Thursday evening when six matches take place.
We have action across both groups and even though the T20 World Cup is on we still have a TV match to enjoy over the course of the evening. As always, the matches away from the TV will have a live stream provided by the home county.
North Group
There might only be two matches in the North Group on Thursday evening but it is where the TV match comes from as the first Roses clash of the season takes place at Headingley as Yorkshire play host to their arch rivals and the leaders Lancashire in what is always a competitive battle. The other match in this group sees two of the top four in the North Group meeting at Edgbaston where the Birmingham Bears will look to stay in the top two when they host a Northamptonshire side who will move into second themselves with a win.
South Group
We have a full set of fixtures in the South Group on Thursday evening but with the leaders Somerset not in action it is a chance for the chasers to close the gap on them or even overtake them. Surrey are the closest challengers to the champions and they will be expected to overtake them when they cross the river to take on Middlesex at Lord’s. Sussex are in third and they play host to a Kent side who will probably have to win six out of seven games were they to lose in Hove. Essex and Hampshire sit fourth and fifth heading into the evening so their clash in Chelmsford is a vital one for the group while Gloucestershire and Glamorgan, the two sides below those two, battle it out in a key game for both in Cardiff.
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TV Match Betting
I’m not going to go too mad with the TV game but I have Lancashire much warmer favourites than Yorkshire in it. You can look at the form but it largely goes out of the window in this Roses clash but the two things I can’t get away from is Yorkshire are so top three heavy it is untrue and while the weather has improved enough for them to prosper, when they don’t they really struggle. The other issue I have is apart from Dom Bess, every Yorkshire bowler with double figures for overs bowled this season is going at over eight an over.
Lancashire I think have a deeper batting unit. A couple of times their lower order have got them home this season but they definitely have the best bowling attack at their disposal of the two. Three of their main bowlers are going at seven an over or less and they have a number of batters over 100 runs for the competition and another on the fringes of it. Lancashire just look the better side to be and if they can get stuck in with the new ball they could run out comfortable winners here.
Other Match Betting
There is only one which gets my interest in the other matches and that comes in the game between two sides who go into their clash off the back of drubbings in their last outing when Sussex host Kent. That defeat to Surrey last time out was the first real time that the Sussex batting has failed but the Kent bowling attack is nothing like as strong as the Surrey one so I expect Sussex to get back on track with the bat here.
There is more of an in and out feel about the Kent batting but this is a side who have put up totals of 205/8 and 198/6 this season so when they bat well they are very strong. Pretty much every Sussex match has been medium to high scoring this season and the same can be said about the Kent ones. 169/7 played 172/4 in this fixture last year while Sussex had put up more than 200 in the reverse fixture before the rain came. I think the runs will continue to flow here and over 336.5 will do me.
Tips
Back Lancashire to beat Yorkshire for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Bet365
Back Sussex vs Kent – Over 336.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
