Cricket: Friends Life t20

[fishy25]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20 I can't call anything right in the TV games it seems. Smith was out first ball annoyingly, and Lancashire really didn't get going at all until the latter part of their innings. Quite enjoyable to watch at the end though, and Kev's sixes bet never looked like failing. Thankfully for me Worcestershire managed a win, so -3.50 today, leaving me on -7.33 for the competition. Just need a couple of good days to pull it back.

[Charlie Wong]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20 Hampshire won, pietersens playing for Surrey tomorrow, shame I got a bleeding league game! Argh!

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20 Ok whichever cat I killed, ladder I walked under or mirror I broke I apologise fully because this is starting to take the piss now :wall:wall :lol. I thought my luck in the first few weeks of the CC was bad but this is a joke. 3 losers tonight, Smith playing a reverse sweep off his first ball (wtf :eyes) when Bairstow goes on to make 10 which was lower than all of Smith's scores before tonight :\, the stumping bet which Cross had two really good chances for but dropped the ball both times :wall and then the double which was looking safe until Scott Newman gets dropped 3 times early in his innings and goes on to make 39 off 27 to win it. -7 on the night and -33.92 overall. Surely my luck and the luck in this thread is due to change soon :hope:hope.

[fishy25]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20 Right onto tomorrow and let's hope it's the day where this thread can shine. I'm taking 3 in the first televised match tomorrow, and it's fair to say if it's not a high scoring affair, I'll be f*cked with all 3. Nottinghamshire vs Warwickshire- Over 7.5 sixes- 5/6 William Hill- (5/10) Nottinghamshire over 13.5 4s- 5/6 Ladbrokes- (6/10) Warwickshire over 13.5 4s- 5/6 Ladbrokes- (6/10) I'll do just the one prelonged write up combining all 3 bets as the reasoning is pretty much the same for each. All bets heavily rely on some big scores tomorrow but I see no reason why we won't see a run fest down at Trent Bridge tomorrow. In the T20 we've seen scores of 215 vs 162 and 184 play 146, in which all of these matches have had at least 8 sixes, and only one of the 4 innings haven't had at least 14 boundaries, that occuring in Derbyshire's 146, where there was 11. Tomorrow we'll see two sides who are supremely strong in terms of batting so it's hard to imagine how we won't see plenty of runs. The two sides met just a few days ago where amazingly there were 18 sixes in total, which is pretty special to see in one domestic match. That was scored on an Edgbaston pitch, where 193 played 165. I expect a similiar amount of runs tomorrow, if not more so if both sides get around the 170 mark, we'll see the boundary count come in comfortably. And with the batting quality on show such as Voges, Hales, Hussey, Patel, Read and Wessels for Notts, whilst the Bears have Chopra, Carter, Porterfield, Troughton and Maddy amongst their top order so given the batting quality, how a ton of runs won't be scored in batsman friendly conditions tomorrow escapes me. Neither bowling attacks are great either, with both sides' bowlers capable of getting taken apart by some quality batsman on show. Feel this might be a cracker tomorrow and I'm backing both sides to fill their boots and pound the boundaries.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20 2 for me in the earlier TV game tomorrow. I'm with fishy. 6pts Nottinghamshire vs Warwickshire - Over 7.5 6's 5/6 William Hill Both these sides have been pretty prolific when it comes to hitting 6's in this tournament. It helps that both play on grounds where there is a short boundary due to recent building work but it also plays into our hands here. When these two met at Edgbaston on Wednesday night there were no fewer than 18 6's so for this line to be less than half of that seems pretty strange. Even more so when you factor in Nottinghamshire covered this on their own here against Yorkshire in one of the matches played here. Both matches here so far have had at least 8 6's in it and in the likes of Alex Hales, Riki Wessels, Samit Patel, Adam Voges, David Hussey and Chris Read the Outlaws have a top 6 all capable of clonking a ball a long way. Warwickshire are no mugs when it comes to that either. They have Carter, Maddy, Clarke and Woakes who returns for this game who can all biff a ball. There is often a short boundary down to the new stand side of Trent Bridge given the angle it's been built at and that can lead us to the 8 maximums we require here. 1pt ew D.Maddy Top Warwickshire Batsman 5/1 Coral (1/5 1,2,3) This is another strange price given that Darren Maddy scored twice as many as any of his teammates when these two sides met at Edgbaston on Wednesday. Maddy returns to the scene of his most famous moment in this match and I'm sure that will only inspire him further. It was here he led Leicestershire to twenty20 success against this same side when he scored a superb 86 off just 61 balls in the final of this competition in 2006 so it's a ground that holds precious memories for Maddy. I love the 5/1 price meaning we get a refund if he places but with none of Warwickshire's top 3 going past 20 in the last two matches I think he has every chance of top scoring. He's still one of the better one day batsmen in the country and at 5/1 he's carrying my money on Saturday.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20 And 2 in the 2nd TV game. Leaving the non TV game alone. Surrey should win but Hampshire didn't stroll it today and Surrey weren't exactly booked in for a win when the rain came down tonight. KP's attendance has impacted on the odds too. Not sure I like that Gloucester bowling 'attack' against that Surrey line up :lol. 4pts Kent to beat Glamorgan 5/4 Sportingbet I think there's an outside chance Kent have been written off too soon in this competition. They've only played two matches, both of which were against last season's finalists and ok they lost both but 160+ was a competitive score against Somerset's attack and we can't judge them on a 5 over slogathon against Hampshire who seem to be beating all before them anyway. What I like about Kent here and why I think they might have been written off too quickly is Wahab Riaz makes his debut so with him and Charl Langeveldt they actually have a couple of bowlers now. Throw in Azhar who can still be tough to get away on slow wickets and James Tredwell who is still one of the top spinners in the country and all of a sudden Kent have an attack to be competitive with. In an ideal world we'd have Martin van Jaarsveld fit to play but that's not the case. Even so though a top 6 of Denly, Key, Northeast, Stevens, Jones and Mahmood with Tredwell and Riaz able to biff the odd ball down the order isn't a bad batting line up for an opposition like Glamorgan. If you want van Jaarsveld as a Kent backer you probably want Harris as a Glamorgan backer but he is injured as well so they level themselves out. Glamorgan's strength is in their batting but if Langeveldt and Riaz can get through the top 3 quickly then there isn't a huge amount of substance below it. Glamorgan's attack is one of those it'll fire on some days and others it won't but at 5/4 I don't mind seeing if it's one of the latter ones. A final reason why I like Kent here is Glamorgan's batsmen are going to go from playing in London at 8pm on Friday and they would've had to have waited around until around 9.30 for that game to be called off, to playing this match less than 20 hours later. It's a big ask at any time is that. It's possibly a bigger ask when you go from The Oval's pure and true batting wicket to a slower one at the Swalec as well. Kent were due to be playing on Friday but that was in Taunton which wouldn't be a million miles away from a direct route to Cardiff and that match was called off pretty early by 20 over standards so they'd have probably been on the way to Cardiff before Glamorgan had even boarded their bus. Lots of things are in Kent's favour here, more than enough for me to play the 5/4. 2pts D.Stevens Top Kent Batsman 9/2 Stan James Regular visitors will know I'm not a huge fan of win only top bats but Coral don't seem to realise Glamorgan home matches are on TV which is a shame. I'd have probably made an exception here even if they were priced up as Darren Stevens has top scored in both Kent's matches so far. He hasn't just top scored though, he's done it by 25 runs and 38 runs. In the 25 run win in the Somerset match he beat everyone else bar Rob Key by 58 runs which shows how he is dominating this Kent batting at the minute. He's the 2nd top scorer for Kent in the CB40 behind van Jaarsveld who isn't playing this match so I really believe Stevens has everything going for him to challenge the top score in this match. With van Jaarsveld missing he's likely to bat in the top 4 which given the rate he scores at should be high enough for him to top score. He hits hard straight down the ground which is another plus for the Swalec so at a big looking 9/2 I'll take Darren Stevens to complete a hat trick of top scores.

[fishy25]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20 Bit of profit to speak of today but hugely disappointed with the sixes bet. Plenty of boundaries just far lower than I expected in terms of sixes which is strange considering these teams scored 18 between them the other day when they played. Both teams covered the boundary bets though so +5.00 today leaving me on -2.33. Slowly but surely :hope.

[fishy25]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20 Hopefully today is the day where I can speak of some overall profit and I'm taking 3 in total. 2 in the televised match and one elsewhere. Yorkshire to beat Northants- 4/5 Sportingbet- (5/10) Northants are on a bit of a downward spiral at the minute after having a near enough perfect start to the season, they have lost 3 of their last 4 and I fancy Yorkshire to make that 4/5 today. It has been their batting which has let them down in the past couple of matches against Durham and Worcestershire where they have simply not got going at all and been comfortably beaten. Their batting won't be as strong today as well as David Sales picked up a hamstring injury against Worcestershire on friday so I'm guessing he will be absent today which is a huge blow for the Steelbacks. To me without Sales that leaves a huge gap in their middle order which lacks experience and some additional quality. At the top of the order Vaas has yet to make any substantial runs, so it will down to Wakely, Peters, Hall and Botha to make heavy contributions which looks a bit weak to me. Especially given the fact that Yorkshire have Rashid, Sidebottom and Pyrah in their side, all of whom are a big threat in this form of the game. Yorkshire have won their last two games, albeit narrowly, but their batting is stronger than Northants with the likes of Bairstow, Gale, Lyth, McGrath and Brophy who are all competant batman, and with the likes of Rashid, Ballance and Pyrah giving extra support with the bat, I'm backing Yorkshire to win this to give them 3 wins on the bounce. Fall of Northants 1st Wicket Under 19.5 runs- 5/6 Ladbrokes- (4/10) The line is a tad low than what it normally is but I still fancy Yorkshire to take an early wicket before Northants reach 20. The Steelbacks will open with Hall or White and Vaas, who are all agressive hitters of the ball, and all players who will take risks with their shots. In each of Northants 4 matches in the T20 this season, they have lost a wicket before this (19.5) line, with Vaas making 0,1,1 in his last 3 innings showing how out of touch he is at the minute. Yorkshire's have opened up with Adil Rashid in the competition this year which they've a fair amount of success with. He has taken a wicket within his first couple of overs in each of Yorkshire's matches and with Vaas attempting to hit him out of the park from the first ball, there is every chance he could have another early victim to speak of today. We have seen that spinners have been increasingly hard to score off in T20, and with the agression up the top of the order from Northants, Rashid is a good enough spinner to make this work in his favour and deliver the breakthrough early on. Sidebottom will bowl from the other end first up and he is also a genuine threat to take wickets with the new ball and the pitch should nip about a bit so given the agressive openers of Northants, and the quality of the Yorkshire bowlers, an early wicket looks likely to me. Leicestershire to beat Warwickshire- 19/20 Sportingbet- (4/10) From watching Warwickshire yesterday, I saw major weaknesses in their team which will cause them problems this season in the T20. Despite winning their first two matches, they haven't since, and yesterday looked to be low confidence, with their fielding poor, the bowling up top far too predictable on a length, and then no one batsman barring Woake really excelled. Their bowling in particular looks a bit light to me though with the exceptions of Patel, Woakes and Carter, the rest of the 8 overs is made up of predominantly batsman who can bowl a bit. Granted Darren Maddy is a wily campaigner but if he doesn't get it right, given his lack of pace, he could be tonked all around the ground today by some fierce Leicestershire batsman. The Foxes look a good T20 outfit with a nicely balanced side of youth and experience. As I said Warwickshire's bowling attack isn't the greatest but batting is Leicestershire's main strength, with the in-form McDonald leading from the front, and the likes of Cobb, Jefferson, Taylor, Nixon, Du Toit and the big hitting Razzaq provide a strong look to the batting lineup. With their bowling they have some experienced players in Henderson who is always dangerous and Hoggard, and Razzaq who is a fine death bowler. Leicestershire just look the better team on paper to me and from watching both sides recently, I'm backing the Foxes to get the win here.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20 Looks like we're going to have to do some shower dodging today which is annoying because the TV game offers up some cracking bets. Anyway I'll go with them in the hope the forecast is wrong and the rain arrives later than scheduled. 6pts Yorkshire vs Northants - Under 7.5 6's 5/6 Skybet This line looks huge. Yorkshire in 4 matches have hit 5 6's and haven't hit any in either of their last two matches while Northants in their four matches have hit 8 6's but one of those matches was at Edgbaston and that short boundary, a boundary which was cleared 18 times in the next match there. Both batting lineup's are struggling. We've seen in TV games in the last few days how both sets of batting have struggled to make 125 and with bowling attacks very much being the strengths of both these sides on a fairly big ground I don't see 8 balls clearing the ropes in this match. 4pts J.Bairstow (-2.5 runs) to beat C.Vaas 5/6 Ladbrokes The Chaminda Vaas experiment at the top of the Northants batting card just isn't working. He's scored 2 runs in his last 3 innings and only made 19 in the other match. Jonny Bairstow isn't faring much better but at least he is a batsman and a genuine one at that rather than a bowling all rounder like Vaas. I actually think Northants might drop Vaas down the order here and if they do that then it suits Bairstow in this match even more. Bairstow's at home with a decent attack backing him up and while Northants attack is good I believe Bairstow's batting quality will naturally see him 3 runs better than Vaas respective of current form. Throw in current form and I very much like the Yorkie here. 3pts Highest Individual Score - Under 55 7/4 Stan James There's only been 2 scores of 55 all season at Headingley. Gareth Andrew hit 60 off 26 balls and William Porterfield made 64 off 34 balls and if there's any batsman even in good form in these two sides who score like that here then good luck to them. I don't think there is. Yorkshire's highest individual score is 54 in their four matches, in fact only 2 scores in 4 matches have passed 31 while Northants' highest score is 62 by Alex Wakely at Worcester who don't have an attack as good as Yorkshire's. As I've said both batting line up's are struggling and both strengths lie in their bowling so I would be very surprised especially in the heavy conditions, if we see someone make 56 or more in this match.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20 Raining in Leeds so a delayed start :sad.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20 I was going to take Leicestershire away from the TV as well but with all the rain around I won't bother. If there is play there I can hope they win to strengthen the qualification chances for the outright bet on them but I'll just leave the other matches today and wait for the sun to come back out in London tomorrow.

[fishy25]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20 Yeah looks like there won't be much if any play at all around the ground which is hugely frustrating.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20 That was annoying that the TV game was washed out as I really fancied making a profit there. Same again on Monday though and there's no weather to mess us up this time. 5pts Essex to beat Surrey Evs Ladbrokes Essex look a big price to me here. We have to go back to the very first season of this great competition in 2003 to the last and only time Surrey have beaten Essex. Since then every single match they've played apart from their meeting which was rained off in 2004 has been won by Essex and that doesn't surprise me really although when you consider how dominant Surrey were in the early stages of this event it's an amazing stat. Essex come into this match with two wins and two defeats from their four matches. They'll be disappointed with the two defeats but they both came to Sussex who are a good side so I'm prepared to grant them a little bit of slack. In one of the matches they walked into a Luke Wright special which can happen. Surrey have a win, two losses and a washout. The win and one of the losses both came against Gloucestershire while the washout was against Glamorgan but Surrey would probably be thankful for the rain because 170 wasn't going to be an easy run chase there. Surrey will be making do without Kevin Pietersen here after his stint of county action has ended. Jade Dernbach is available if that's a good thing. For me Surrey are way too reliant on their top 5 with the bat but especially their top two. If one or both of those fall early they don't seem to have the plan to work around it. Spriegel comes in at 6 and I don't think I've ever seen him hit a ball off the square :loon. With the ball yes Arafat, Nannes and Dernbach are all internationals but this isn't a wicket for bowlers especially seamers with pace. Essex have bags of matchwinners in their side. Bopara, Pettini, Shah, ten Doeschate, Styris, Napier and I guess even Walker can all win matches single handedly with the bat while Masters, Southee and Styris can all win matches with the ball. I think Essex are in better form, they have by far the strongest batting line up and have the better and tighter bowling attack and given their unbeaten record against Surrey I have to take Essex at Evs here. 4pts Essex to hit most 6's 11/10 Coral 5pts Essex Over 3.5 6's 5/6 Ladbrokes I like both these bets. Essex come here off the back of a win at Lord's where they hit 6 6's and that's no mean effort at that ground. They covered the 3.5 line in their two matches prior to that and only failed to clear it in their opening match when they walked into a freak spell from Rana Naved when he took 5 for almost nothing under the Hove lights. That isn't going to happen here, the wicket is too good for that and there isn't a Rana Naved in the opposition. What I like about the most 6's bet is Gloucestershire managed to hit most 6's here in the first game despite having the weakest bowling attack of all time. They did the same on Saturday too. In that match, Surrey only hit one six on a postage stamp of a ground really. The night before that Neil McKenzie, anything but a big hitter of a cricket ball, hit 2 6's there so that shows how poor Surrey's latest effort was. Essex have hit 22 6's in 4 matches which ok is distorted because they play at Chelmsford on small boundaries but as I mentioned there was nothing small about Lords. Surrey's three innings in this tournament have yielded 8 6's but two of those have been against a poor Gloucestershire attack. Surrey's bowling gives up 6's and their batting doesn't hit as many as you'd think. It's not easy to whack this Essex attack either. You ain't going to score too many 6's off David Masters and the likes of Southee and Styris keep things tight. With Napier, ten Doeschate, Bopara and Styris Essex have 4 men capable of multiple 6's in no time and Essex to hit the most 6's and to hit more than 3.5 have to be the calls in this. 1pt ew R.ten Doeschate Top Essex Batsman 6/1 Coral (1/5 1,2,3) I'm really surprised Coral have offered Tendo as an ew potential. We all know his twenty20 prowess, we've seen it enough over the last couple of years both for Essex and Holland and also for the Kolkata Knight Riders too. He's a clean striker of a ball who can wallop spin and seam. In many ways the worry is Surrey getting him in here but Nannes and Arafat can hopefully pick up a wicket or two while going for a few to get the Dutchman who will bat at 5 in. Ten Doeschate comes into this match off the back of a nice 164 against the Sri Lankans over the weekend so he'll be seeing it like a football and with the ew terms on offer here I have to take the big hitting all rounder at 6/1.

[fishy25]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20 Really frustrating day yesterday with all matches being abandoned but hopefully the bad weather is behind us and it puts an end to the losses in the forum. I'm with Kev on a couple today, and have a few of my own. 5 in total so hopefully this match will go my way. Essex to beat Surrey- Evens Ladbrokes- (4/10) Took this last night when presumably Kev took it but Essex have dropped to favourites since so I'm glad I jumped onboard last night. Although their form in the T20 has been a touch inconcistent this season, the fact remains that they are still one of the strongest teams on the county circuit in one day cricket and have enough match winners in their team to hit a golden patch of form at anytime. With the bat they have Bopara, Pettini, Napier, Shah, Styris, Walker and ten Doeschate which is perhaps with the exception of Somerset the strongest looking top 7 on paper in the game. Their bowlers are no mugs either with Napier, Masters and Southee, with Styris putting in some tight overs as well. Surrey are without KP after he played his annual match for his county the other day but still do have do good players on their books. But Essex are far stronger in my opinion with a greater number of players who can carry the team unlike Surrey, so I'm backing the Eagles to win this at an attractive price. Essex Most 6's- 11/10 Bet365- (4/10) Agreed with Kev again here and looking at the Essex team, they have a total of 8 players who can clear the boundary with relative ease. The main stand outs are Napier, ten Doeschate, Styris and Bopara, but the likes of Foster, Pettini, Shah and Walker can also hit a long ball so clearing the boundary won't be a problem for this Essex team as they showed at Lord's the other day when Owais Shah went mad against his former side. Surrey do also have some big hitters as well but not nearly as many as Essex, with Davies, De Bruyn and Roy the main dangers for Essex in terms of getting spanked around the place. Surrey have struggled to hit sixes on a regular basis in the T20 this year though, whilst Essex have usually struck a fair few so I'm backing the big hitters of Essex to outscore their opponents on the sixes count. I'll stop copying Kev now :lol. Surrey Over 13.5 4's- 5/6 Ladbrokes- (4/10) Essex Over 13.5 4's- 5/6 Ladbrokes- (4/10) Although I'm expecting Essex to win the match and the sixes battle, I still feel that this Oval pitch is good enough for both sides to hit some decent runs today and given the batting talent of both sides, I'm backing what seems to be my favourite bet in these T20 matches. As mentioned, Roy, Davies and De Bruyn are all fairly big hitters so although they may hit some maximums, boundaries should come from those 3, but I like the overs in the Surrey side because in their top order, they have Hamilton-Brown and Maynard who are genuine stroke makers and will look to score 4's and not clear the ropes so if one of those two gets a decent score, that should up the 4 count quite considerably. Also they have Schofield, Arafat and Batty down the order who are all capable of finding the ropes if they get in. Surrey hit 23 4's here when they beat Gloucestershire and they were only chasing 156 and granted the Gloucester bowling attack is poor, but is shows that the pitch should hold up for the duration of the match and some decent scores should be scored which should bring the overs in. Similarly with Essex their batting talent is endless as mentioned so as long as they don't clear the ropes a billion times tonight, whether they are chasing or setting the target, they should be fine to clear the overs tonight providing there are scores of 150/160 or above so I'll take the overs for both sides. G.Napier Top Essex Batsman- 7/1 Coral- (1/10) E/W- 1/5- 1,2,3 Well as Kev has backed the Dutchman, and I'm backing Napes, feel one of us should be satisfied tonight as far as the top bat is concerned. We all know what Napier can do with the bat in his hands and if he gets going in front of the Sky cameras tonight like he's done in the past against Sussex, he's an extremely hard man to stop despite some strong bowlers in Surrey's attack. I'm guessing he will bat at 3, although that's not a given but I do suspect he will, and if that's the case, every chance he could come into bat with a few overs of the powerplay remaining so if he's not out in his first few balls, he should be able to play some shots and hit some runs. He has played one of these special knocks against Surrey already this season where he hit a stunning 196 in the Championship with 19 4's and 16 6's. He hasn't really got going in one day cricket this season but tonight could be the night for that, and a repeat of that 196 would be something to watch. Got the ew shot as well so some decent runs could see a return here.

[Luck7]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20 YTD +2pts Thought the prices were about right but seeing the money flood onto Essex has made surrey a value price. Yes Essex are good on paper but Bopara is out of form along with Pettini. Surrey lost to Gloucs and Essex thumped them but that doesn't concern me, Surrey have the firepower to trade blows with the Eagles and 2.3 with betfair is just way too big for a pick em game sorry to be a contrarian 1pt Surrey 2.3 betfair

[fishy25]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20 Don't think I've ever been more frustrated than at the end of that innings. Need one 4 off the last over, second from last ball I reckon went for four, but not given, then Ansari smashes a flipping six off the last ball. :wall

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20

YTD +2pts Thought the prices were about right but seeing the money flood onto Essex has made surrey a value price. Yes Essex are good on paper but Bopara is out of form along with Pettini. Surrey lost to Gloucs and Essex thumped them but that doesn't concern me, Surrey have the firepower to trade blows with the Eagles and 2.3 with betfair is just way too big for a pick em game sorry to be a contrarian 1pt Surrey 2.3 betfair

Good shout mate :ok. I was nowhere near tonight. Awful really. When ten Doeschate and Styris both get run out cheaply I was always struggling and so it proved :sad.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20

Tuesday 14 June 2011	Home	Away	BPP
	Durham v Nottinghamshire (17:30 BST)	2.2	1.83	100.00 %
	Middlesex v Glamorgan (17:30 BST)	1.9	2.16	98.68 %
	Sussex v Somerset (19:10 BST)	2.24	1.8	100.20 %

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20 Ok this has been a complete shambles so far but we're still early enough in the competition that a profit can still be made with a bit of tweaking here and there. Going to leave the side bets alone for a while and concentrate on the match betting and the odd top bat that looks value. At the minute I'm an embarassing -50.72 overall but I had a shocking 2-3 weeks in the Championship and got back into profit there so here's hoping that happens here too. Like the look of all the outsiders tomorrow night. 4 bets in total, 2 in the TV game and 2 away from TV. Will do the TV game first which is Sussex vs Somerset. 4pts Sussex to beat Somerset 6/5 Totesport This is a repeat of the 2009 final which Sussex won and here's hoping they repeat that result. These two sides come into this match in 3rd and 2nd place in the South Group behind Hampshire. Sussex have suffered just the one defeat to Middlesex last time out and won their 3 other matches while Somerset have also suffered one defeat, to Hampshire. They've won two and had 2 washed out. Sussex will be without Matt Prior for this match but appear at full strength aside from that. Umar Gul is due in this week and he could debut here but failing that Wayne Parnell will continue to partner Rana Naved in the overseas duties. Sussex on paper have a decent top 6. Nash, Wright, Goodwin, Vincent, Yardy and Gatting with the likes of Hodd, Parnell and Rana Naved giving it a bosh under that is a solid batting line up. Parnell, Rana, Wright, Panesar and Yardy all have international experience with the ball and the likes of Amjad Khan and Chris Liddle can back them up. Somerset now have Craig Kieswetter back since we last saw them on the box. They have a fearsome top four in Trescothick, Kieswetter, Trego and van der Merve but we saw in that Hampshire game that there isn't a huge amount backing them up and below van der Merwe they've barely batted for a while such has been the dominance of Somerset. Those who have got in have been slogging from ball one. Alfonso Thomas has been missing with a hanstring injury and he was due to miss the Hampshire match on Sunday so may not be fit here. Murali Kartik joins van der Merwe in the overseas ranks and Kirby, Hussain and Gregory make up the bowling attack. Sussex would've won all four matches had they taken their catches on Friday night. It may just have been a bit of complacency given their record and Middlesex's at the time. I don't think they'll be so generous here. I see this match as Somerset's top 4 against Sussex's bowling attack. I quite like Sussex's attack, they've restricted Essex to two poor totals already which is no easy feat even allowing for their shambles at Surrey. Sussex know how to win these games at home and if they can control Somerset's batting early on then this 6/5 will become a big price on a side who can bat strongly themselves against a weaker Somerset bowling attack. 1pt ew R.van der Merwe Top Somerset Batsman 5/1 Coral (1/5 1,2,3) Roelof van der Merwe looks a fair price here. We will certainly know our fate fairly quickly here because he doesn't die wondering. In the last two matches Somerset have played he's ran up scores of 89 not out off just 51 balls at Kent and then 51 off 21 against Middlesex, with 11 6's in those two knocks so it's fair to say the South African knows where the middle of his bat is right now. I don't care what the rest of this powerful batting line up does, while he's scoring like that nobody will score quicker than him. You would think Sussex's two left arm spinners turning it into his legs will be perfect for him to slog a few more 6's on what are pretty small square boundaries at Hove. Van der Merwe looks like batting at 4 unless his heroics have seen him promoted above Trego and that looks like a place where he can top score again, but certainly hit the top 3 if he gets a few off the middle. Non TV two to come.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20 5pts Glamorgan to beat Middlesex Evs Skybet Middlesex host Glamorgan really needing another win here. The Panthers currently sit bottom of the South Group having lost their opening three matches but they did win last time out against Sussex although as I've mentioned, the matchwinner, Scott Newman was dropped 3 times in that match. Glamorgan have been hit and miss. They've already thrashed Middlesex in this tournament at the Swalec, should've beaten Hampshire but lost, would probably have beaten Surrey but for half time rain and should've beaten Kent but lost. A win here will push Glamorgan into the top 4. Middlesex will be without Steven Finn which could be a big loss to their bowling attack. Dawid Malan and Gareth Berg also miss out through injury for this match at Richmond rather than Lord's. Jamie Dalrymple does return to face the side he walked out on in the off season. Chris Rogers and Ryan McLaren have the overseas duties but neither have achieved a great deal thus far. Tim Murtagh, Corey Collymore and McLaren will lead a seam attack which needs to start firing for Middlesex to win matches. Glamorgan are batting really nicely at the minute. Take out a dodgy performance on a slow Hampshire wicket which even then was almost good enough and the Dragons have put up scores of 199/4, 167/7 and 154/5. The catalyst to those is their top 3 of Alviro Petersen who looks to bat through the innings, Mark Cosgrove and Jim Allenby. They then have biffers down the order in the likes of Graham Wagg, Mark Wallace and Chris Cooke to project the score up. Glamorgan's problem is with the ball although to be fair it's only really been a problem against Kent last time out and that was a pretty freakish innings by Wahab Riaz. Spin twins Croft and Cosker look to squeeze while Wagg, Owen and Jones are asked to set the tone up front. Although they lost to Kent I think Glamorgan are playing good cricket. They are scoring runs and bar the odd freakish innings they are restricting sides. I don't like this Middlesex batting line up without Malan and Berg. For me, after Dexter it runs out. Dalrymple can sparkle but he has shown nothing back in Middlesex colours while McLaren hasn't done a lot either. I'm still not sure twenty20 is Chris Rogers' game. That puts a lot of pressure on Paul Stirling, Scott Newman and Neil Dexter because their bowling isn't firing either with 155/5 the lowest total they've conceded so far and Essex had 2 more overs to go there as well. Glamorgan are batting and bowling better and if that counts for anything given the unpredictability of this competition so far, they'll win this. 4pts Durham to beat Nottinghamshire 6/5 Skybet Both these sides are no strangers to finals day so it's weird seeing Durham in 6th place coming into this match. Nottinghamshire are top and did have a 100% record until the Leicester rain got involved on Friday night. Durham have won one, lost a couple and had another couple washed out. Their defeats came against Warwickshire and Derbyshire with a win over Northants. If Somerset have a powerful batting line up Durham's isn't a lot worse by any means. Phil Mustard and Ian Blackwell have to be two of the most powerful batsmen in the country while Gordon Muchall is getting on with it as well. Paul Collingwood, David Miller and Dale Benkenstein form a solid middle order with bangers like Breese and Plunkett down the order. The big boost for me is Graham Onions' form. He's bowling lovely at the minute. He's backed up by Chris Rushworth, Liam Plunkett and Mitchell Claydon. Scott Borthwick is in this squad too while Paul Collingwood is very canny and classy at county level. Nottinghamshire are no slouches in the batting department either with their Aussie duo of Adam Voges and David Hussey. I'd be very surprised if Alex Hales and Samit Patel don't receive England call up's to the one day squad next week and Riki Wessels and Chris Read can bat quickly as well. I'm slightly more doubtful about Nottinghamshire's bowling though with the belief that Pattinson and Fletcher can go when batsmen get them. Mullaney as a 5th bowling option I'm not sure of while is Elstone in the side as a batter, bowler or fielder? He bats at 8, doesn't bowl, or at least hasn't so far and isn't a dynamite fielder. Weird. Given that he appears to be a batter only batting at 8 I'd have thought a stronger 5th bowling option could play there. Nottinghamshire are unbeaten so far but I believe had the rain not come along when it did at Leicester on Friday night that they would've lost that. The Foxes had got off to a good start chasing 163 which looked a low total. Durham restricted Derbyshire to 169/5 on Sunday which was their 2nd lowest score so far so that was no bad effort and I believe given that Durham may well have won that match so both league positions are slightly distorted. Durham have a lot of international cricketers in their side and if the likes of Mustard, Blackwell, Collingwood and Onions fire then they are a big price here.

[fishy25]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20 Going to have a day or two off the cricket after the past couple of results. Hopefully a break will bring a change in fortunes when I return to the competition.

[slizorn]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20 Wish I could be back after a day or two :( Unfortunately following kev this last week and a half and along with some disasterous bets in tennis has set me back about 70pts leaving near the state of being broke :sad Being a student doesn't help my cause, hopefully I should be back in about 3 months! GL with the recovery kev, cos if anyone is going to pull this off its you! :hope

[Mirage]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20

Wish I could be back after a day or two :( Unfortunately following kev this last week and a half and along with some disasterous bets in tennis has set me back about 70pts leaving near the state of being broke :sad Being a student doesn't help my cause, hopefully I should be back in about 3 months! GL with the recovery kev, cos if anyone is going to pull this off its you! :hope

If you are 'broke' then surely you have bet more than you can afford. Self-exclusion works and allows time to think about everything gambling-related with a clear mind :ok

[fishy25]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20 This is atrocious from Somerset, completely and utterly terrible. Looks like a full house for Kev today :clap

[RussP]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20

4pts Sussex to beat Somerset 6/5 Totesport 1pt ew R.van der Merwe Top Somerset Batsman 5/1 Coral (1/5 1,2,3)

5pts Glamorgan to beat Middlesex Evs Skybet 4pts Durham to beat Nottinghamshire 6/5 Skybet

Great stuff so far tonight mate:clap:clap:clap Looking like a full house on the match bets and stake back on the top bat. Provided Sussex can rattle off 91, then that's over 14.5pts of the deficit knocked off:clap

[slizorn]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20 Gratz Kev! :clap Looks like me not following you tonight seems to have broken the bad run! :lol

[Luck7]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20 3-0 well done Kev:clap

[Wanderer89]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20 Well done Kev :clap Onwards and upwards

[PerryPFC]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20 Form is temporary... Class is permanent ;)

[Luck7]

Re: Cricket: Friends Life t20 YTD +3 Think the Falcons will have too much power up front for the Royals, Guptill, Durston, Hughes and Madsen are all on fire with the bat, bowling is a slight worry but think they will have too much and 8/11 is a perfectly reasonable price. 1pt Derbyshire 8/11 (stanjames)