THE EDGE: The Edge previews The Hundred format game between Birmingham Phoenix v London Spirit with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
Birmingham Phoenix v London Spirit
MATCH OVERVIEW:
The Hundred group stage comes to an end on BETDAQ Betting Exchange on Thursday. All roads lead to the playoffs at the weekend, and it’s a little unfortunate that the final group game is a dead rubber as Birmingham Phoenix take on London Spirit. There was a chance this week that London Spirit could make it to the playoffs but a lot had to go right. Not only did they have to win this game, Trent Rockets, Welsh Fire and Southern Brave all had to lose as well. Their chance ended on Tuesday when Welsh Fire beat Northern Superchargers.
That loss for Northern Superchargers meant they have lost their last five games, and it gives Birmingham Phoenix an opportunity to get off the bottom of the table too. They are one point behind Northern Superchargers at the moment. Although sitting in last, I’m not going to be too harsh on Birmingham Phoenix. They’ve had two games rained off but they have been average – they’ve only won once from five games.
London Spirit have been average too if truth were told. Like Birmingham Phoenix, they have had two games rained off but they can’t have any excuses. They had opportunities to win all their games – especially the two London Derbies against Oval Invincibles. They lost with one ball to go and by two runs – how different could things look if they got over the line in even one of those games! They also lost to Welsh Fire in their last game, and that was a make-or-break fixture in the race for the playoffs.
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
Scoring hasn’t been that high at Edgbaston this season. We lost the first fixture here to the weather so we only have two scores as a guide. 112/7 was chased down with 15 balls to spare and 160/8 was successfully defended. Batting conditions are usually decent at Edgbaston so I wouldn’t just go into this game expecting a reasonably low scoring wicket. The ball has moved around a lot at the start of the innings, and 150 might be a good target to aim for if batting first.
RECOMMENDED BET:
We have two average sides here, and we should have a close game. You wouldn’t want to have a large stake on either side to be honest! I was surprised to see such a gap between the sides when I clicked into the market. You could easily say that London Spirit have played the better cricket this season and that they have just been edged out of close games, but Birmingham Phoenix have the batters to blow sides away. I feel this is a 50/50 game and the value is with the home side at 2.2 or bigger. I can only see a close game here!
The Edge Says:
Two points win Birmingham Phoenix to beat London Spirit at 2.2 with Betdaq Exchange
View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/BirLon
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
As I mentioned above, we have two average sides here and I wouldn’t get married to a position in-running. This is definitely a game to get in and out of as quickly as possible with each trade. It’s also not a game for high stakes. It being a dead rubber could see some wild swings from the batsmen, so definitely have that in the back of your mind when opening trades on either batting side. I feel there’s two angles here – getting on the bowling side for the opening 10 to 15 balls before getting out square (whatever happens, red or green). And then supporting the Birmingham Phoenix middle order when the ball stops moving.
