THE EDGE: The Edge previews The Hundred opener between Oval Invincibles v Birmingham Phoenix with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
Oval Invincibles v Birmingham Phoenix
MATCH OVERVIEW:
The most controversial of all franchise cricket.. The Hundred returns on Betdaq Betting Exchange this Tuesday from London! When the tournament was launched in 2021, supporters said the format would be followed around the world – three years later and nobody has copied them. It’s become very much a stand-alone tournament, other franchises have always opted for T20 or T10, and seemingly we get a new one nearly every month now! The Hundred has been a costly product for the ECB, and now they are looking to sell the franchises with the IPL owners showing “soft” interest among others. There was an article at the weekend suggesting they might even change it to a T20 tournament! The sale will bring a lot of money to English cricket, however we obviously have all the county’s now fighting. Mostly between the “big” and “small” county boards who aren’t involved in this competition.
There’s also been a bit of fighting between the ECB and the Pakistan Cricket Board over a NOC for Naseem Shah. The PCB are saying workload management; the reality for the Hundred is they need every star they can get. Players are getting paid more to play the Major League Cricket in the USA at the moment. Freddie Flintoff has managed to talk Ben Stokes back into playing in the Hundred. Not only does the Hundred face criticism for outsiders, but English cricket fans compare it to the T20 Blast too. The Blast is a superb product that has been put to the side by the ECB; they still get massive crowds though! It will be interesting to see what kind of crowds we get for the Hundred this summer.
We kick things off with Oval Invincibles hosting Birmingham Phoenix. The Invincibles topped the table last season before going on to win the title. That was quite the turnaround after a poor 2022. Birmingham Phoenix topped the table in the first season but they have been pretty average since. They were very close to the bottom of the table last season! Once again; another interesting summer of Hundred cricket awaits!
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
Obviously this format is unique. You can use the T20 Blast as a guide, but nothing more. Last season here the scores were very high after a tie in the opening game. The first inning scores were; 138/6 (tied), 186/5 (won), 189/4 (won), 148/7 (chased) and 196/1 (chased). Scoring has been good in the T20 Blast here too – we saw one blow out with a score of 107/9 but that was chased in just nine overs! We’ve also had scores like 213/7, 183 chased and 103/5 in a ten over game. I’d expect good scoring conditions here.
RECOMMENDED BET:
Oval Invincibles come into the game as the favourites at 1.74 which isn’t a surprise given they are defending Champions with home advantage. No Heinrich Klaasen is definitely a big miss given his massive hitting and obviously Gus Atkinson has had a great run with the England side so it’ll be interesting to see if he’s allowed play after the Test series. The Invincibles aren’t as strong this season, and start the tournament without some players too. Birmingham Phoenix are going to be without Naseem Shah which is a huge blow, obviously something the ECB aren’t happy about the Pakistan board not giving the NOC too. Southee comes in but won’t be as good – I do feel that you can pick holes in both sides but given the odds I’m going to have a small bet on Birmingham Phoenix at 2.24 or bigger.
The Edge Says:
One point win Birmingham Phoenix to beat Oval Invincibles at 2.24 on Betdaq Exchange
View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/OvaBrm
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
You’d have to expect good batting conditions based on everything we’ve saw from the Oval this season. Obviously we cannot compare the Hundred to the Blast too much but we did have very good scoring conditions in the Blast. I’d expect a high scoring game, and would mainly want to be looking for trades on both batting sides. I wouldn’t want to be on the bowlers for long here! I’d be happy to support the side batting first, and then depending on the score make the decision whether to trade out or switch fully to the chasing side.
