Even though we are in the middle of the Vitality Blast, such is the bonkers nature of the county schedule these days, we park the white ball on Sunday for the first of two rounds of County Championship fixtures.
We move into the second part of the red ball season and with the Test match summer just a couple of weeks away players involved will be keen to impress ahead of the squad for those being announced. The county streams will show all the action this week.
Division One
We have got a right old title race forming in Division One with Surrey leading Essex going into the second part of the season by just two runs. The leaders make the trip to New Road to take on a Worcestershire side who are battling to avoid the drop while Essex face a tricky home clash with a Durham side who isn’t short for talent. Somerset have moved themselves to within 16 points at the top of the table and they go to Trent Bridge to take on Nottinghamshire. Bottom of the pile Kent have a home game with second bottom Lancashire in a match which could be huge in the bid to avoid the drop while the other match comes from Edgbaston where Warwickshire host Hampshire.
Special Offer
Open a new Sporting Index account and bet £10 on the county season (min odds 1/2) to get £20 in free bets (2x£10 free bets) to use on any sports market! Click the image below to take advantage of this great offer! 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Responsibly.
Division Two
We have a full set of matches in Division Two on Sunday as well as the race for promotion resumes with Sussex on top of the table. They have a home match at Hove this week where third placed Leicestershire are the visitors in the pick of the matches in this round. Middlesex start the season half of the campaign in second place and they host bottom of the table Derbyshire at Lord’s. Gloucestershire are in fourth spot starting out in the second half of the campaign. They resume at Scarborough where they face Yorkshire while the other match comes from Cardiff as Glamorgan take on Northamptonshire.
Betting
I’m a little bit bemused by the odds in the match between Yorkshire and Gloucestershire where the visitors have to be a big price. I don’t know if the layers think that Yorkshire have Joe Root, Harry Brook and Shan Masood at their disposal for this match like they did in the first part of the season but Root is now resting ahead of the Test matches, Brook is in the Caribbean with England and Masood is out with the concussion he sustained in the Roses T20 on Thursday. Added to that top wicket taker Ben Coad is missing as well so this is a patched up Yorkshire side going into battle.
In an ideal world Gloucestershire would have Zafar Gohar available in a week where there is a heatwave going across the UK but we can’t have everything. Gloucestershire have solid batting depth though and four of their last five first innings scores have been over 400. If they put up another one here I’m not convinced Yorkshire have that sort of total in them so I like the idea of Gloucestershire to pick up a win at a big price here.
Tips
Back Gloucestershire to beat Yorkshire for a 3/10 stake at 2.50 with William Hill
Back them here:
