THE EDGE: Our cricket tipster The Edge previews Friday’s Manchester Originals v Northern Superchargers (The Hundred) match with a recommended BETDAQ bet.

Manchester Originals v Northern Superchargers

MATCH OVERVIEW:

The Hundred continues on Friday as we move to Old Trafford as Manchester Originals take on Northern Superchargers. This should be a cracking game for trading on BETDAQ Betting Exchange, and the tournament as a whole should be very enjoyable. Interestingly I noticed over the first few games, Sky Sports were streaming the opening games on TikTok with the aim of reaching a new audience. I can see traditional cricket fans not liking that, but it is a pretty good idea. In terms of cricket rules, there isn’t much difference here given the MCC has introduced the rule that if a catch is taken the new batter is on strike regardless of whether or not the batters have crossed.

Northern Superchargers start the tournament on the backfoot already with the ECB deciding to rest Ben Stokes for the South African T20’s and the Hundred. Possibly the best decision for England, but a terrible blow for Northern Superchargers. As I have said in the opening two games, we are going to have a lot of issues with International players during this tournament. We have already seen Jonny Bairstow opt out just this week to rest. Although Northern Superchargers are without Ben Stokes, they do have a nice looking squad – Dwayne Bravo and Faf du Plessis are well experienced on the T20 circuit and they have some nice bowling options too.

Manchester Originals have some world class hitters in their side in the shape of Jos Buttler and Andre Russell, but you would wonder how the others will cope if the big two fail. Phil Salt will disagree with me given his form this summer but I think they will struggle as a team to be honest, but let’s see how they get on here.

WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:

I’m going into this game completely open minded because I don’t think we got to see the ground at its best in this competition last season. In the first game here we saw a collapse for 87 all out, then we had a rained off game and another, before we finally finished with 142/6 which was successfully defended. That’s not even close to a decent sample size to get an idea on what a good score here is. I do feel in general that the ECB will be asking for flat wickets this summer, but again it’s early days in the tournament.

RECOMMENDED BET:

Manchester Originals are reasonably strong favourites here. They are trading as short as 1.77 which is quite a big difference in the market in a short-format game. I know they have some stellar batsmen but as I said, what happens when they fail? I really want to be against the rest of the team outside of the two or three big names and I’m keen to take the 2.2 on Northern Superchargers here. I’d even go as far to say that I’d have Northern Superchargers as favourites, but I’m not going to go too mad with the staking so early into the tournament. Let’s see how they perform, but I’m very happy with the 2.2 on the Northern Superchargers.

The Edge Says:
Two points win Northern Superchargers to beat Manchester Originals at 2.2 Betdaq Exchange.

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

IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:

Given we didn’t see much cricket in this tournament here last season with bad weather, it’s hard to form a set in-running strategy before the off. I can’t say batting or bowling first is an edge, and it’s the first game for the two teams too. The best angle I see is taking on the Manchester Originals middle-order before Andre Russell comes in – where he bats is open for debate. I also don’t want to be against Jos Buttler, but then he is carrying more stress as England white ball captain these days. This is definitely a game to react to situations and market moves in-play rather than form a plan before the off and focus on that.