Richard Mann's tips for The Hundred are currently returning a 29.2pts profit – check out his preview of Wednesday's action here.
Cricket tips: The Hundred – London Spirit v Welsh Fire
1pt Leus du Plooy top Welsh Fire batsman at 10/1 (Betway)
0.5pts Dwaine Pretorius top Welsh Fire batsman at 40/1 (Paddy Power, Betfair Sportsbook)
- Richard Mann is 29.2pts in profit so far in The Hundred, with every preview in profit
Barring a minor miracle, Welsh Fire will finish bottom of the league table in The Hundred this year following another disastrous campaign.
Despite boasting a batting line-up full of big names and supposed power players, Fire have yet to post anything close to 150 all season. In fact, 129-8 against Southern Brave on Monday was they best they have mustered and that was largely down to a change in personnel.
Derbyshire hitman LEUS DU PLOOY has been crying out for the opportunity to make his mark on the competition and having waited patiently to finally get the nod, the South African blasted 37 from only 25 balls to drag his side to something like a respectable total.
His inclusion in the struggling Fire line-up has been long overdue, given he enjoyed another strong T20 Blast campaign with Derbyshire – making 340 runs and striking at 147.18.
A powerful left-hander who scores all around the ground, du Plooy is an excellent middle-order player who can finish as well as anyone on the county circuit, and certainly rates one of the few in-form players among the Fire batting group.
Top order batting collapses have been the defining feature of Fire's campaign up to now, and they have found themselves 55-5, 77-4, 53-3, 54-6 and 52-5 in their five matches so far.
As such, backing the Fire middle and lower order at big prices appeals as the way into Wednesday's clash with London Spirit, with du Plooy the obvious starting point.
I'm not usually overly keen on betting the lower order in this competition – those 20 fewer balls compared to T20 can clearly make all the difference in these markets – but this appeals as a perfect storm, with a misfiring top order and a team low on confidence who are consistently suffering major batting collapses.
There is of course the risk that we are a game too late with du Plooy, whose inclusion in the Fire starting XI has been needed for a while now. On the flip side, we have another game's worth of evidence to strengthen our theory so we know du Plooy is batting well and overpriced at 10/1 (Betway).
I do want to add another string to our bow, though, and the 40/1 about DWAINE PRETORIUS in the same market makes plenty of appeal.
Pretorius can hit the ball a long way and top scored for Fire when smoking 29 from 15 balls against Manchester Originals only two matches ago, before backing that up with a rapid 15 (seven balls) on Monday when it took an outstanding catch to stop him in his tracks.
Coming in at number eight means Pretorius is patently up against it, but he batted at number three for South Africa in India not so long ago and don't rule out a promotion up the order if Fire feel they need to change their failing approach.
If not, he might still get his chance to win again and at 40/1, must be worth a dart to small stakes.
Posted at 1530 BST on 23/08/22
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