Cricket: Friends Provident Trophy 2009

[WoodyTHFC]

Re: Cricket: Friends Provident Trophy 2009 Well from an outright perspective I'm going to hope hampshire can win today. I have one for the other game though: Sussex to beat Gloucestershire 5/6 tote 10 pts I like the look of Sussex here and consider them just to have the extra firepower in this game. Gloucester have returned to form this season under Bracewell and look more like the one day side of the early part of this decade. However I was very surprised by their shocking 20 20 campaign. Whilst this is a different format to that, they shouldnt really have lost the amount of games they did in that 20 20 campaign. They managed to beat notts in a low scoring game not too long ago to get here but there is a slight suspicion their form is not as good now as it was in the early part of the season, even in the group stage they started out winning every game but eased up late on. Besides this Sussex line up has so much firepower: Goodwin, Joyce, Yardy and then more aggressive players like Smith and Wright to name a couple. It could be hard for Gloucester to contain that firepower today and I just like Sussex to prevail.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: Friends Provident Trophy 2009 Absolutely delighted with Hampshire's win yesterday and a bit toasted from the experience. I didn't realise they did sun in Lancashire :lol:lol. Thought we were 50 short of where we should have got to but was equally confident we'd defend 271 which we did. Good results for me in the semi final bets. +1 for the Hampshire semi after Lumb and Adams put the 15 overs well out of reach and +4.2 for the Sussex semi after Ed Joyce picked a good time for a career best to top score. Gloucester looked well on course at one stage but chasing 327 isn't easy. So +5.2 for the day which puts me back to -2.99 overall. The final is Hampshire vs Sussex on 25th July so I'll bring the thread up again before then. Now, where's that Lords box office number............ :lol.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: Friends Provident Trophy 2009 The final is tomorrow (Saturday). I'm off to it so as usual I'll go with a few bets.

Saturday 25 July 2009	Home	Away	BPP
	Hampshire v Sussex (10:45 BST)	2.11	1.85	101.45 %

I'm going with 4 in a match I'm really really looking forward to. If I was a neutral I'd be looking forward to it. I think it's got the potential to be a classic. 3pts Hampshire to beat Sussex 11/10 Skybet This Friends Provident Trophy final is sure to be very keenly contested between two local rivals. In truth there isn't a lot between them. These two are the best one day sides in the country at the minute and it's hard to separate them. Both sides came through tricky semi finals with ease and with this final being in July the toss won't be as crucial. These two have featured in 3 of the last 4 finals with both winning the title. Hampshire in 05, Sussex in 06. Hawks were runners up to Durham in 2007. Hampshire will hope their openers go well again. They've been on fire all competition and that's led to Michael Lumb, who I've been saying is the best opener in the country all season, being called up to the England Champions Trophy squad. Sean Ervine and Michael Carberry both got good runs in the Championship match leading in here. Dimi Mascarenhas, Dominic Cork and Chris Tremlett will lead the attack but Imran Tahir will be the key bowler. Sussex have Matt Prior back in their side and he's a huge boost. Ed Joyce has been on fire recently while Luke Wright, Murray Goodwin and Michael Yardy are also good batsmen. Yasir Arafat and James Kirtley lead the bowling attack which is a little weak on paper if not in numbers. They have plenty of spin options. As I said earlier there's nothing to choose between these two sides. It really could go either way so the 11/10 represents some value on Hampshire. Often in one day games bowling attacks win matches and I think Hampshire's is the better so I'll have a dabble on the Hawks landing the trophy. 3pts S.Ervine's Performance Pts 45&Over 5/6 Bet365 Points are scored as follows: 1pt per run, 10pts per catch & 20pts per wicket. Sean Ervine is coming into form nicely. The ex-Zimbabwe international all-rounder has had a shocking time with injuries but his bowling is coming on nicely and he's a regular wicket taker now as opposed to the cannon fodder of the last two seasons. With the bat he's always reliable and comes in off the back of an 80 odd in the Championship. He's also a pretty decent fielder so can take catches. An average match with both bat and ball gets him home here so I'll take the overs on the Hampshire number 7. 3pts Under 5.5 6's Evs Skybet As we've seen all summer Lords is a huge ground and hitting 6's isn't easy. It will be made even harder with 2 decent bowling attacks on show and although we've got a few big hitters in the two sides I still think it's asking too much for the ropes to be cleared 6 or more times so with that in mind I'll side with the unders in the 6's. 1pt ew M.Prior Top Sussex Batsman 9/2 Coral It's not clear where Matt Prior will bat in this batting lineup but it seems unheard of that he can bat out of the top 3. He could even open alongside Ed Joyce. Prior comes in here in good nick having spanked the Aussies all around this very ground in the 2nd innings last week and being a naturally attacking batsman the transition won't be too hard. Ed Joyce and Murray Goodwin are live dangers but neither will score as quickly as Matt Prior when he's at the crease and giving that he'll have plenty of overs to bat, England's wicket keeper is well worth ew interest despite us not quite getting our stake back if he only manages a place.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: Friends Provident Trophy 2009 Made a small profit on the final. Not as much as I wanted as I wanted to end the competition in profit instead I end it -1.89 which isn't desperately bad. Hampshire winning the cup more than makes up for it though :cow.

[Yorkshire]

Re: Cricket: Friends Provident Trophy 2009 Just shows you dont have to be a good player to be a good coach, I spent a few years in the 90`s down Southampton way so went to watch Hants and Giles White was an absolutely awful player. There was a clique down there then though, public schoolboy Giles White keeping his place I couldnt believe it, I remember when no-one had the balls to tell John Stephenson he was gone. Paul Terry darent tell him. I think I have a signed Hawks shirt somewhere with John Stephenson's autograph on (I was drunk) obver the Grolsch emblem LOL>