The Vitality County Championship season continues on Monday when the third to last matches of the season take place on a week where we could go a long way to deciding who the champions of both divisions will be.
The Test match is still continuing on Monday so we are going to need to load up the live streams offered by the home county in order to follow these matches in a visual format but with some of the games on show it could be well worth doing so.
Division One
There is no doubt where we need to look for the big match this week. That comes down in Taunton where ahead of doing battle in the Vitality Blast semi-final on Saturday, the top two in the division meets when Somerset welcome the leaders Surrey to Taunton. 24 points separate the two at the start of the week so a Somerset win ignites the title race while a Surrey one probably puts it to bed. Hampshire have made their way up to third and they’ll be looking to take advantage of the top two meeting each other to close in or surpass whoever loses when they travel to Canterbury to take on a Kent side for whom defeat will confirm their relegation in all likelihood. Lancashire are fighting to stay up and they need to win away to Durham to stay in the survival race, particularly if Nottinghamshire, who are third bottom, were to get anything away at Essex. Two teams probably just playing out their season now meet at New Road where Worcestershire host rivals Warwickshire.
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Division Two
We now have a three horse race for promotion in Division Two and it is Sussex that lead the way. They will look to stay out in front when they welcome Glamorgan to Hove. Middlesex are just one point ahead of Yorkshire in the battle for the second promotion spot. Middlesex host a Gloucestershire side who will surely have their minds on the weekend rather than the events at Lord’s while Yorkshire head to Grace Road to take on Leicestershire. The other match sees the bottom two meeting at Wantage Road as Northamptonshire and Derbyshire just play out their season.
Betting
Worcestershire are finishing the season really nicely and they look to have an excellent chance of adding to three successive wins when they welcome Warwickshire to New Road. This is a Warwickshire side who have only won one red ball game all season but they head to their rivals off the back of that T20 quarter final defeat on Friday night, which will take some getting over, and without two all-rounders with Jacob Bethell and Dam Mousley now away with England.
Worcestershire don’t have any such issues and go into this match with only three defeats in the Championship all season and two of those were to Surrey who look by far and away the best team in the competition so there is no shame in that. They had a very good win over Essex in the last game and will have been rested and able to focus on their red ball skills having had no T20 quarter final to worry about. The even money on Worcestershire looks good to me.
Tips
Back Worcestershire to beat Warwickshire for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Bet365
