The Vitality County Championship continues on Friday when another full round of games get going over a weekend where once again in April we are probably going to have to dodge some showers across the four days.
The first two rounds of matches haven’t yielded many results but we ditch the Kookaburra ball and get the Dukes out this week so you would imagine that will naturally bring about more results and in essence it could be said that the season starts here.
Division One
Essex are the only county of the 18 in the two divisions who have managed to force a win in the opening two rounds of games and as such they are leading the way in Division One. They will look to stay out in front when they host Lancashire at Chelmsford. The champions Surrey haven’t forced a win yet and they will look to get off the mark when they make the short trip to Canterbury to take on Kent. Hampshire play host to Warwickshire in arguably the pick of the matches in this round of games while Somerset go up against Nottinghamshire. It is a big week for the two promoted sides when Kidderminster hosts the match between Worcestershire and Nottinghamshire.
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Division Two
There hasn’t been a single win in Division Two of the County Championship so we are basically left with a 12 game race for promotion and the two favourites to exit the division meet at Lord’s where Middlesex play host to Yorkshire in what really is a Division One clash in all but name with the players involved. Northamptonshire are looking to get back into the top flight and they host Glamorgan, who boast one of the best batters of the season so far in Sam Northeast. We have a midlands derby as Derbyshire welcome Leicestershire to the County Ground while Sussex play host to Gloucestershire in the other match.
Betting
I think Leicestershire are the best bet this weekend. I liked them anyway but when you consider that they have added Ben Green to their squad for the match I think they are even better things even at 4/5. Leicestershire haven’t dominated their two matches so far but Yorkshire were the pre-season favourites for this level and Sussex are my pick to win the division so I’m not going to diminish the Leicester displays so far.
Derbyshire have had a complete washout and a match with Glamorgan and where my concern is for them is it was a spinner who picked up 12 of the 17 wickets to fall last week. I don’t see a spinner having much of an impact with a Dukes ball in the middle of April so the home side are going to need their seamers to stand up, particularly against a pretty solid Leicestershire batting unit. Leicestershire’s attack is likely to have more pep with the change of ball and so I like them to get the job done here.
Tips
Back Leicestershire to beat Derbyshire for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Coral
