Monday's action from The Hundred comes from Old Trafford, where Manchester Originals and London Spirit could struggle for runs, according to Richard Mann.
Cricket betting tips: Manchester Originals v London Spirit
2pts London Spirit under 144.5 total match runs at 5/6 (General)
1pt No fifty in the match at 7/2 (Paddy Power, Betfair Sportsbook)
Things have been tricky for punters so far in The Hundred, and even more so for batters who have seemingly found things much more challenging than we are used to seeing in T20 cricket.
The debate as to why is probably for another day, but Sunday’s results summed up the situation perfectly, Birmingham Pheonix only scraping to 106-7 batting first at Southern Brave, and then Northern Superchargers managing just 124-9 away at Trent Rockets.
Both of those matches were won by the chaser, another running theme of this year’s tournament, but I don’t think there is any toss bias at play here, more the fact small totals have been run down as expected.
The conundrum for punters is weighing up whether this will change anytime soon. The pitches across the country have been generally flat all summer, and with the weather apparently set fair for the week, runs would usually be the order of the day.
However, this is the ninth game of the season now and we’ve only seen two scores of 150 or more, both in the same game. Whichever way you slice it, it’s hard to be too confident about betting high totals right now.
And Monday night's match between Manchester Originals and London Spirit provides punters with a conundrum, given the pitch at Old Trafford has generally been good for batting all year and that Spirit are so far responsible for the highest score of the season – 163-5 against Welsh Fire.
On paper, Originals boast a fearsome batting line-up, headed by Jos Buttler and Phil Salt, before Heinrich Klaasen is entrusted to add the finishing touches.
But sport isn’t played on paper and so far, Originals have mustered scores of 131-4 and 128, while Spirit were rolled out for only 80 in their previous match.
Moreover, I’ll still not convinced by Spirit who look an ageing team to me, especially with the bat, and I’d argue that the unbeaten 70 David Warner scored on Saturday was peppered with moments of good fortune early on. And without that knock, things would’ve been very different.
I’m still down on the visitors, and reckon they could come unstuck against this Originals spin attack which should get a little bit of assistance from the surface in Manchester.
As such, I’ll be backing UNDER 144.5 LONDON SPIRIT MATCH RUNS at 5/6 as my main bet, with a smaller small stake on NO FIFTY IN THE MATCH also advised, given this bet has landed in four of the eight matches played this season. The 7/2 on offer looks too big.
Preview published at 1005 BST on 11/08/25
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