The Vitality Blast continues on Saturday where we have two more matches taking place with both coming from the North Group as three sides are in action for a second time and one county makes their competition debut for the season.
One of the two matches has full TV coverage for us to enjoy but as is the case throughout the county season we can also keep up to date with everything going on in the other match via the live stream which is provided.
Birmingham Bears vs Durham (16.00 – Sky Sports Cricket)
The televised offering on Saturday takes us to Edgbaston for the clash between a Birmingham Bears who were well beaten in their opening match on Friday night, and a Durham outfit who will be competing for the first time in this match.
Birmingham offered plenty with the bat in their loss to Nottinghamshire on Friday night but they had nothing to give with the ball once the Outlaws batters had got to grips with the Bears’ spin twins and it will be interesting to see if they can come on for the run with the ball or whether that attack remains sitting ducks. One thing is for sure is the Durham batting won’t give them an easy ride. There is plenty of hitting power and depth in their batting unit so they should be confident of getting the job done against this attack. The Durham bowling is always my concern in T20 cricket but they have a couple of overseas bowling options and two good spinners in Callum Parkinson and Nathan Sowter. In an ideal world they would have one of Matty Potts or Brydon Carse around but Kasey Aldridge has come in to cover that void. Birmingham have the age old problem of having to back up a match the night before which is never easy and having been messed around with overseas players it is going to take a while for the attack to balance out. I fancy Durham in this one.
Special Offer
Open a new Sporting Index account and bet £10 on county cricket (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.
Lancashire vs Nottinghamshire (16.00)
The match which hasn’t got the TV coverage on Saturday takes us to Old Trafford for the clash between two sides who are usually among the fancied runners to dominate the North Group in Lancashire and Nottinghamshire.
Both teams have played one and won one in the competition so the winners here will know that they will set the pace in the section after the opening weekend of matches which is a good incentive for both to play well. Lancashire weren’t overly convincing in their win over Worcestershire on Thursday evening. In the end they were fortunate that the Rapids panicked in the second half of their batting innings. That was in contrast to Nottinghamshire. While conceding 226/5 is an obvious concern, the way they went about the run chase was full of quality and confidence which bodes well for them. I don’t like backing sides who played the night before because backing it up is never easy but this Lancashire bowling attack looked light the other night and now Luke Wood has gone back to the England squad it looks even lighter which has to bring Nottinghamshire into the game. You would imagine they will make a couple of switches to their side but they have the likes of Matthew Montgomery in reverse and having shown no issues in chasing down 227 on Friday night we know they can win a high scoring game. If either attack is going to restrict the opposition when you put the two together you would say it is most likely to be Nottinghamshire so I’ll make an exception to backing the team playing in successive days and take the Outlaws here.
Tips
Back Durham to beat Birmingham Bears for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with Boylesports
Back them here:
Back Nottinghamshire to beat Lancashire for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Bet365
