THE HUNDRED 💯: Our cricket tipster The Edge previews Thursday’s Hundred format game between Manchester Originals v Southern Brave with a recommended BETDAQ bet.

Hundred Game 19
Manchester Originals v Southern Brave

MATCH OVERVIEW:

All eyes might be on the 1st Test between England and India, however The Hundred continues on Thursday as Manchester Originals take on Southern Brave at Old Trafford. I wonder at the moment what the ECB think of the competition? The scores have been a lot lower than expected, especially with the overseas talent and all the top England players playing. As it stands, I feel they could have achieved the same result with the same marketing behind the T20 Blast – but let’s wait and see how the rest of the competition goes!

With the low scores, we have had plenty of dramatic in-running swings on BETDAQ Betting Exchange. This could be another game as we had a very low score at Old Trafford! We had one game washed out, but the first game here saw a first innings score of 87 all out on a big spinning pitch. The pitch can get very dry here and the UK was going through a heatwave at the time – that heatwave has broken since, so I would expect more runs here. We have two very different teams here if you glance at the table, with Manchester Originals towards the top of the table and Southern Fire towards the bottom, however there’s only one point between them! We should have another good game here.

WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:

As I said above, we saw a very low score here in the first game with 87 all out. As we know, that can happen at Old Trafford when it gets very dry. I would go into this game wary of a spinning pitch, but given the heatwave has been gone a while now I wouldn’t expect too much spin. The scores have been so low in the tournament to date, it hasn’t really paid to look for trades on the batting side. I would expect a better pitch than earlier in the tournament here, but Southern Brave haven’t got a hugely impressive batting line-up so I wouldn’t go into the game expecting a big score.

RECOMMENDED BET:

Open markets have been the theme so far in The Hundred, but we do have a favourite here. Manchester Originals are trading 1.82, but I believe they still offer good value at those odds. I know there isn’t much between them in the table, but I really don’t like the Southern Brave batting. They were able to beat London Spirit, but they have proven to be a very poor side – especially with their batting. Manchester Originals have a much more solid batting unit – particularly the middle order who are in good touch too. I’m happy with the 1.82 here.

The Edge Says:
Two points win Manchester Originals to beat Southern Brave at 1.82 with BETDAQ Betting Exchange

View the market here -> https://bit.ly/BDQManSth

IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:

A lot of the in-running strategy will focus on the pitch here, so do take a few balls (usually I would say overs but there’s no overs in The Hundred!) to access conditions. If it was a big spinning wicket, you’d want to get on the bowling team first. To be honest, getting on the bowling team first here isn’t a bad play at all – especially if that’s Manchester as the Southern Brave line-up looks pretty weak. At the moment, the general theme in the tournament has been low scores, so it’s paying to look for trades on the bowling side.