THE BLAST: We’re approaching the business end of this season’s T20 Blast and we’ve got another round of interesting fixtures taking place on Friday evening.
Somerset v Surrey – 18:30
The top two in the South Group face off at Taunton in what could be a cracking contest.
Somerset have set the pace in this group winning seven of their eight matches with their only defeat coming at the hands of Hampshire. They have a very solid side, and as their last victory against Essex showed, they tend to score runs at a seriously fast rate. Tom Banton and Will Smeed at the top of the order tend to go from ball one and have often put opposition bowlers on the backfoot right from the beginning of their innings. In the bowling department, Peter Siddle has been there and done it, so knows what is needed in this sort of cricket, while there aren’t any more experienced T20 Blast players than Roelof van der Merwe.
Surrey, meanwhile, have won their last three and sit just two points behind Somerset in the table. They have a side blessed with talent led by Chris Jordan and given they have the Curran brothers, Jason Roy, Sunil Narine and Will Jacks, just to name a few, in their side, it’s not hard to see why they are fancied to go very close this year.
Surrey might be the away side in this one, but are the slight favourites at 1.82, and that looks about right. While Somerset are top of the South Group, they could easily be in a much worse position as plenty of their results have been decided by a fine margin. With that in mind, the in-form visitors can take this one.
Sussex v Hampshire – 19:00
Nicknamed ‘El Clasicoast’, Hampshire make the shortish trip to Hove to take on Sussex. Recent form, as the odds show, suggest the visitors are the strong favourites and there is plenty to suggest they should win this. Having started the competition in mixed fashion, James Vince’s side have won four of their last five, catapulting themselves into the top-four in the South Group.
As we all know Hampshire are white ball experts and the defending champions look to have pretty much all bases covered again this year. James Vince continues to show he’s one of, if not, the best county batsman around and alongside Australian Ben McDermott, the Hawks have a very imposing opening partnership. Their bowling is well stocked too with McDermott’s compatriot Nathan Ellis continuingly taking wickets at the death, while Mason Crane and Liam Dawson are very solid operators too.
In contrast, Sussex have struggled in this season’s T20 Blast winning just two of their eight games, including only one of their last five. That came against basement side Middlesex, who given they have to register a victory so far, was basically a given. They have actually only scored 17 less runs than Friday’s opponents, but have gone for significantly more runs – 288 in fact – and that’s been their big issue.
With that in mind, it must be a worry taking on against the likes of Vince and McDermott, and Hampshire look very solid favourites at 1.58.
