Matt is a subscriber here at ProGambler and intends sharing with you all his
cricket betting advices. Below you will find his first analysis of the Domestic T20.
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Domestic T20
The cricket season is revving up and its nearly domestic T20 is nearly at the ¼ finals stage. The ¼ finals line up with 4 games in 2 days with a chance to make the all important finals day up for grabs:-
Saturday 6 August, 1700: Leicestershire Foxes vs Kent Spitfires @ Grace Road.
Sunday 7 August, 1345: Nottinghamshire Outlaws vs Somerset @ , Trent Bridge.
Sunday 7 August, 1700: Hampshire Royals vs Durham Dynamos @ The Rose Bowl.
Monday 8 August, 1910: Sussex Sharks vs Lancashire Lightning @ The County Ground.
Betting and winning on 20/20 is tough as this format is more of a “lottery” than the longer Pro40 and championship matches. As the games are on TV you get a few markets to bet on, so I am hopefully going to point us in the correct direction! However in my opinion there are still skills that are needed to have a successful side. Batting wise you need some explosive power at the top of the order who can take advantage of the fielding restrictions, you then need some guys in the middle who can score off every ball or better and then near the end you need some players who can cross the ropes. It sounds easy, however it’s obviously not! Bowling wise you need someone who can blow away the top order when they are trying to hit boundaries, in the middle you need a quality slow bowler or a seam bowler that has great variation and then at the end when the game is in the balance you need a bowler with a cool head that can bowl Yorkers.
Leicestershire Foxes vs Kent Spitfires
I backed Leicestershire from the start of the tournament @ 40/1, so I am going to stick with them to make finals day. I know stats can be misleading but I think that Leicestershire will be too strong bowling wise. The batting stats are similar but Leicestershire have 5 bowlers with 10 wickets or more, one of which has 22 whereas Kent only have 3 bowlers with 10 wickets or more. Batting wise I suspect Leicestershire will go with Andrew McDonald (470 runs) and Cobb (310 runs) at the top of the order who will look to go over the top and score at 10+. In their middle order James Taylor (229 runs), Will Jeffersen (243 runs) and the experienced Razzaq will look to guide them to a big total. Bowling wise McDonald (12 wickets) will look to remove the dangerous Key & Denly and the experienced Hoggard & Henderson will look to strangle Kent in the middle overs. It will be interesting to see if the so far impressive Gurney (22 wickets) can continue his good form. For Kent the dangerous Mahmood can win games on his own so will be respected, however I expect that Leicestershire will have a little too much for Kent.
Suggestions:-
Leicestershire to win match 10/11 Ladbrokes
McDonald (Leicestershire) (6 x 50 in 13 innings) 5/2 ToteSport
Mahmood (top Kent aggregate 303 runs) (Kent) top run scorers. 9/2 Ladbrokes
Nottinghamshire Outlaws vs Somerset
This looks like the game of the round, Nottinghamshire were very impressive in topping the northern group with 4 batters all scoring 300+ runs in the group, Alex Hales (465), Adam Voges (415), Wessells (353) the talismanic David Hussey (357) and they will all be looking to build on some impressive performances in the groups. Somerset were more reliant in the ever green Marcus Trescothick (460). But no less than 7 of their team scored 50s in the group. Both teams spread their wickets out with forgotten Egland man Darren Pattinson (19) being the top dog for Nottinghamshire and Gregory (16) for Somerset.
Suggestions:- I expect that the bat will rule and Somerset might shade it, however I expect it to be a close game that might be settled by the toss. No bet
Hampshire Royals vs Durham Dynamos
I have worries over the Durham batting, on paper the batting looks strong with Mustard/Muchall/Blackwell/Collingwood/Stokes/Benkenstein and the overseas player Miller, however they have under achieved. Their bowling on the other hand has been excellent and has won them a few games. The returning power of Stokes will help and Benkenstein & Miller have hit some form at the end of the competition. However I think Hants will be too hot with the ball. Masceranus (20 wickets) & Cork (14 wickets) are a wily 20/20 bowler and the spin from Afridi (14 wickets) and Briggs (17 wickets) and Imran Tahir (16 wickets) in the middle give Hants some great spin options. Hampshire’s batting has been ok, but they will worry that they have only scored 6 x 50s in the tournament. They have relied on the top 3 batters Vince (387, McKenzie (310) and Adams (273). However they do have the mercurial Afridi who is yet to fire but could do at anytime and turn a game on its head.
Suggestions:-
Hants to win match 4/7 StanJames
Benkenstein for value to be top scorer as he has (220 runs and 2 x 50 in 9 innings) to top score for Durham. 11/2 ToteSport
Vince (4 x 50 in 13 innings) to top score for Hampshire. 10/3 ToteSport
Sussex Sharks vs Lancashire Lightning
Lancashire have in my opinion over achieved in qualifying and have relied heavily on their batting. Tom Smith (392 runs), Stephen Moore (434 runs) & Croft (300 runs) have all been very impressive. Their bowling has been poor with only Gary Keedy (15) and Parry (15) taking double figures wickets. Sussex have spread the runs around more with Luke Wright (331), Chris Nash (292), Lou Vincent (258) and Murray Goodwin (223) being the top scorers. Add to that Matt Prior who has only played 5 games their batting looks strong. However its their bowling which has really done well with Liddle(17), Rana Naved (14), Panesar (14), Umar Gul (12), Ollie Rayner (10) Add to that Luke Wright and Chris Nash and they have a very impressive varied bowling attack. I expect the added batting depth of Sussex to tell with Matt Prior and Luke Wright acting as a formidable opening partnership.
Suggestions:-
Sussex to win 4/6 BlueSquare
Luke Wright (Sussex) top scorer (3 x 50 in 9 innings) 3/1 ToteSport
Stephen Moore (Lancashire) (4 x 50 in 14 innings) top scorer 11/4. ToteSport
Best Wishes
Matt
