THE EDGE: The Edge previews The Hundred clash between London Spirit v Birmingham Phoenix with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
London Spirit v Birmingham Phoenix
MATCH OVERVIEW:
The Hundred headlines the weekend on Betdaq Betting Exchange with London Spirit hosting Birmingham Phoenix on Saturday evening – the first fixture at Lord’s! These two sides had very poor starts to the tournament in the opening two games. Birmingham Phoenix were absolutely blown away by the Oval Invincibles when they got bowled out for just 89 while London Spirit could only manage 138/9 against Southern Brave and that got chased in 89 balls without much fuss. That loss for Birmingham Phoenix was absolutely a huge blow to the net run rate; that stands at -2.289 which is quite a negative start considering net run rate tends to matter in the race for the playoff spots.
Both sides have a lot of work to do, and a win here will be the perfect way to respond. As bad as that net run rate is for Birmingham Phoenix, it’s not even the worst in the competition! That goes to Manchester Originals who lost in just 57 balls on Thursday night. While both sides are obviously better than their opening display, there are major worries with their batting line-ups. Birmingham Phoenix need Liam Livingstone or Moeen Ali to fire in that middle order in my opinion. They only managed one run between them in the opening match – if they have a very poor tournament then you can really see Birmingham Phoenix struggling.
London Spirit will have batting issues the whole tournament in my opinion, and we landed a very confident bet on Southern Brave in their opening game. On paper, they have the worst batting in the tournament and they will need Andre Russell to get them out of trouble a lot down the order. This will be an interesting game between two sides with plenty of question marks.
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
This will be the first game of the season at Lord’s so obviously it’s worth keeping an open mind given it’s the first week. The first inning scores here last season were; 131 all out (chased), 195/4 (won) and 160/6 (won) as we lost one game to rain. In 2022 we saw relatively low scores with 160/6 (won), 156/6 (won), 122/7 (chased), 139/6 (chased) and 120/9 (chased). I don’t think Lord’s will be as high scoring as some of the other grounds in the Hundred given they always have the ropes out, and I wouldn’t go into this game expecting a run-fest.
RECOMMENDED BET:
I was surprised by the odds here. London Spirit are quite clear favourites at 1.77, and I feel that is much too short. Obviously you can pick holes in the Birmingham Phoenix team as well, so while we landed a very nice four point bet against London Spirit in their opening game, I feel the shrewd play here is to reduce stakes a little given the poor start for Birmingham Phoenix. I really want to be against this London Spirit batting at the moment, and the 2.2 is too big to ignore on Birmingham Phoenix.
The Edge Says:
Two points win Birmingham Phoenix to beat London Spirit at 2.2 on Betdaq Exchange
View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/LonBir
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
As I said above with conditions I don’t think we’re going to see a very high scoring game here. That works hand-in-hand with my opinion that neither batting side is that impressive either. I feel this is a game to pick your moments to support the bowling side in either innings to be honest. However, I do feel the best in-running trade will be taking on the London Spirit batting – in an ideal world they will bat first and we’ll see plenty of market movement. I wouldn’t fully trust the Birmingham Phoenix batting either!
