THE EDGE: Our cricket tipster The Edge previews Tuesday’s The Hundred clash between Oval Invincibles v Birmingham Phoenix with a recommended BETDAQ bet.

MATCH OVERVIEW:

The Hundred rumbles on, and Oval Invincibles clash with Birmingham Phoenix on Tuesday night! This is a massive clash when you look at the table, and I’m sure there will be plenty of swings in-running on BETDAQ Betting Exchange! Both sides are bang in contention for a place in the playoffs but they could both easily miss out too. They have won three of their five games but Trent Rockets and London Spirit look like they’ll be the top two at the moment. That means everyone is fighting for that third position and it’s wide open.

When you look at the records from both sides, they are exactly the same! They both lost their opening games, won three in a row and then lost their last fixture. Birmingham Phoenix would have been disappointed to lose to Northern Superchargers last Friday, they were just completely out-batted and then out-bowled really. Livingstone, Ali and Wade all failed – so things can only get better. Things can only get better for Jason Roy at the top of the order for Oval Invincibles too – he finally got some runs with a 20, including a six, in their loss to Trent Rockets last week but he’s still woefully short of runs. He needs a confidence boosting knock very soon.

Both sides have their flaws here, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them change favouritism a few times during the game. Outside of their star men, they do look a little light. If Roy, Curran and Billings fail for Oval Invincibles you’re wondering where the runs come from but it’s exactly the same with Livingstone, Ali and Wade with Birmingham Phoenix. An intriguing game awaits.

WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:

The Oval is generally a high scoring ground and I wouldn’t expect this game to be any different. We saw Southern Brave post 137/6 here in the last game but that looked well short of par. It was chased down in just 82 balls. Prior to that we saw scores of 171/6 (won by 3 runs) and then 157/7 was chased down. The team batting first is obviously under a lot of pressure given you need a high score to defend, and that brings its own problems. I’d definitely bowl if I won the toss. The weather looks immense in London until Thursday, so no weather worries here.

RECOMMENDED BET:

There are obviously a lot of positive and negatives to both sides. Both have their issues too. It would be wrong to suggest that Oval Invincibles don’t have a better lower order than Birmingham Phoenix, but I do like the Livingstone, Ali and Wade angle coming in one after the other. On a good wicket they can do damage. I do feel this will be pretty much a 50/50 game, and I’m happy to have a small bet at 2.22 on Birmingham Phoenix from a value point of view. Chasing might be the difference here, and I’m happy to take the value in a game I make 50/50.

The Edge Says:
ne point win Birmingham Phoenix to beat Oval Invincibles at 2.22 with Betdaq Exchange.

View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/OvaBir

IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:

There’s some huge wickets in both line-ups, and it does take a brave soul to take on the star men. I think it’s worth going against Jason Roy again here – I know 20 runs is an improvement but he still looks in a little trouble – I wouldn’t go too mad with the stakes but it’s worth getting against him. Liam Livingstone and Moeen Ali failed last time but in general I see no reason to be against them – I will just let the market do its thing and see what happens in that sense. I feel the biggest edge here might be getting on the side who bowls first at the right time. I don’t want to steam right into them in case we have a very good batting wicket, but I do feel we’ll see a successful chase here if conditions are very good – it might pay to wait until the innings break to back the chasing side if we have a very high scoring game, but otherwise you can start building a position mid-way through the first innings.