Richard Mann previews the Sky Sports action from the T20 Blast on Friday night, with a couple of bets picked out.
Cricket tips: T20 Blast – Derbyshire Falcons v Nottinghamshire Outlaws
2pts Derbyshire Falcons to beat Nottinghamshire Outlaws at 2/1 (General)
1pt Sam Northeast top Glamorgan batsman at 11/4 (Betway)
2017 and 2020 champions, Nottinghamshire Outlaws, will face DERBYSHIRE FALCONS in front of the Sky cameras on Friday night in a match that promises to be much closer than the betting would suggest.
Unsurprisingly, Nottinghamshire are long odds-on to come out on top, but Derbyshire have enjoyed the better start to the latest Blast campaign, pushing high-flying Birmingham Bears all the way before enjoying impressive wins over Leicestershire Foxes and Yorkshire Vikings, and then losing in another high-scoring thriller against Lancashire Lightning.
Nottinghamshire flexed their muscles with an early victory over Worcestershire Rapids, as Joe Clarke and Luke Fletcher shone, but since then they were lucky rain intervened when struggling against Northamptonshire Steelbacks, before being bowled out for 91 against Lancashire.
A batting line-up featuring Clarke, Alex Hales and Ben Duckett is patently capable of better, but I’m not sure the bowling is quite the force of old, not since Harry Gurney’s retirement, and I’d want to see the top order recapture some consistency before taking short odds about the visitors.
Derbyshire, on the other hand, look to have plenty going for them, and continue to be underestimated in the betting.
Well led by Pakistan opening batsman Shan Masood, Derbyshire were 2/1 to beat Yorkshire at Headingley on Tuesday, and 9/4 when trading punches with Lancashire the following day, so 2/1 again looks too big on Friday.
Following on from his brilliant start to the four-day competition, Masood has immediately transferred his strong form to the shortest format, and Wayne Madsen backed him up brilliantly with an unbeaten 21-ball 39 against Yorkshire.
With Harry Came, Leus du Plooy and Australian Hayden Kerr helping form a deep middle order, Derbyshire’s batting looks particularly strong. Scores of 197-8, 159-5, 84-1 (eight overs) and 202-5 underlines that point.
If Derbyshire have a weakness, it might be that their bowling lacks a strike bowler to carry a constant threat, particularly with genuine pace, but the attack is serviceable, and Scotland’s Mark Watt can usually be relied upon to deliver four economical overs.
On the bowling front, Nottinghamshire look very similar, so this could come down to the batting, which again looks evenly matched.
With Derbyshire coming into this clash in the better form, and with such a disparity in the prices of the two sides, preference has to be for the hosts to make their return to home comforts a winning one.
Elsewhere on Friday, SAM NORTHEAST looks a solid option in the top Glamorgan batsman market as the Cardiff outfit travel to Somerset.
Northeast has made a fine start to life in Wales, racking up runs in the County Championship and putting together back-to-back fifties in the Blast. The second of those half-centuries (65) came against an all-star Surrey attack featuring Sunil Narine, Chris Jordan, Reece Topley and Sam Curran.
Northeast is a classy operator who has passed 3,000 career T20 runs this season, and his position at the top of the batting order and his directive to hold the Glamorgan batting innings together gives him a clear advantage over main market rival, Marnus Labuschagne.
At anything around the 3/1 mark, Northeast is well worth a wager.
Published at 1640 BST on 02/06/22
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