Richard Mann previews Wednesday night's match from The Hundred, with Manchester Originals expected to prove too strong for hosts Welsh Fire.
Cricket betting tips: Welsh Fire vs Manchester Originals
2pts Manchester Originals to beat Welsh Fire at 5/6 (Sporting Index, Spreadex)
The second of two matches from The Hundred on Wednesday sees Welsh Fire host MANCHESTER ORIGINALS at 6.30pm, UK time.
After a glut of low-scoring matches to begin this year’s tournament, things have finally picked up in the last few days, and the visitors registered their first win of the campaign when posting 163-6 at home to London Spirit on Monday.
Jos Buttler fired in that match, and with Phil Salt ticking along nicely, and the bowling now having more of a cutting edge with Josh Tongue is available again, the Originals look a much stronger outfit.
We’ve yet to see the best of Heinrich Klaasen, but he’s sure to come good soon, while Afghanistan wrist spinner Noor Ahmad could be a real handful on this pitch in Cardiff which can spin.
Look out for Sonny Baker who has pace to burn, but perhaps the likes of Scott Currie and Lewis Gregory will more effective on this surface bowling their cutters and delivering those clever changes of pace.
There is a lot of boxes ticked for the visitors, and I just don’t have anywhere near the same level of confidence in Fire who are once again struggling, having lost both matches so far this term.
They went down swinging against Spirit at the weekend, but the batting really concerns me, with Bairstow’s scores of 42 and 86 not out going a long way to masking some big problems there.
I do expect Steve Smith to come to the party soon, but Bairstow is not guaranteed to back up those opening two innings judging by how inconsistent he was in the T20 Blast for Yorkshire earlier in the summer.
After Bairstow, Chris Green’s 32* from number eight is the best any of the other Fire batters have managed so far, and it’s clear this is a very fragile top six.
The bowling might be even weaker, so betting the ORIGINALS TO WIN THE MATCH at 5/6 makes perfect sense.
I’m a bit disappointed the aforementioned Gregory hasn’t been priced up in the Player Performance market anywhere, as he’s always underrated despite generally contributing with bat and ball.
He was given a second look to be Match Hero, but this is a market I generally avoid nowadays, so a decent bet on the Originals will do for me.
Preview published at 1120 BST on 13/08/25
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