THE EDGE: Our cricket tipster The Edge previews Wednesday’s Surrey v Yorkshire T20 Blast Quarter Final with a recommended BETDAQ bet.

MATCH OVERVIEW:

The T20 Blast Quarter-Finals arrive on Wednesday and we have a cracker to start on Betdaq Betting Exchange. There is a huge amount going on around this game off the field. For starters, it’s fair to say that The Hundred has replaced the T20 Blast as the prime limited overs competition in the UK. The Blast was always going to slip down, but now the ECB have schedule an India tour slap bang in the middle of the Quarter-Finals which is proving to be a massive negative for the county’s. Crowds were always going to suffer with no England stars available, and this was probably the biggest Quarter Final. It will be very interesting to see the type of crowd they get.

Surrey v Yorkshire is a massive English cricket rivalry – and this is actually the first time they meet in T20 history. Quite the event you might think, but now when you put both sides together they are without nine players. That’s huge amount – imagine going to see Real Madrid v Barcelona in the Ronaldo v Messi years, without Ronaldo and Messi and then seven other stars too. You’d feel underwhelmed. Joe Root and Ollie Pope were made available the other day after a bit of backlash, and they will likely play given the early finish of the Test match on Tuesday. I think the most annoying thing from the county’s point of view is the likes of David Willey and Harry Brook are out, but they will probably not play the T20 against India on Thursday – so there’s very little logic when they are benched for England but can’t play here. Surry have the same issues with the likes of Reece Topley missing and might not play for England – you’d think Jason Roy and Sam Curran will, so at least that’s a little understandable.

There should have been a window in the calendar for the Blast Quarter Finals and Finals Day, but alas here we are. Surrey have had a little blip in form coming into this game, but they were always getting to this stage – they topped the South Group, and I doubt they will mind losing three of their last five games. For Yorkshire their bowling is a serious worry coming here, especially in what should be good betting conditions too. They could only manage fourth in the North Group and they were a little lucky to get here too – Nottinghamshire will say so anyway! Despite all the drama off field, we should have a very interesting game here.

WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:

Surrey will be delighted to have home advantage at The Oval, and as I said above this might really give Surrey an edge with Yorkshire seemingly struggling with the ball coming into this game. That being said, Yorkshire’s games actually had more runs in them when you compare their scores to Surrey’s over the course of the season. I doubt that means anything though given the different Groups. At The Oval we usually see plenty of runs and sixes – the most recent game here at the start of July saw Surrey chase down 191/5 by Kent and we have also had a score of 228/4. Apart from that game and another when Surrey collapsed for 129 but then defended it on a very tricky wicket, the chasing side has won. You definitely bowl first here – the chasing side has won five of the seven games here, with a massive score and a low scoring game the other as I mentioned.

RECOMMENDED BET:

Surrey rightly come into the game as favourites, and they have a lot going for them here. I felt they would be very strong favourites, and I feel that they still offer plenty of value at 1.72. I know they are without a few of their stars because of the England v India series, but so are Yorkshire and to be honest these two sides are used to this. I know it’s been in the press this week, but when do the England players actually get a break? These sides are used to playing without them. No Dawid Malan and David Willey will very likely really hurt Yorkshire, and with their bowling under pressure this isn’t the ground to come to. Surrey should win this game, and they are worth backing at 1.72.

The Edge Says:
Two points win Surrey to beat Yorkshire at 1.72 with Betdaq Exchange.

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

IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:

While I am confident in Surrey getting the job done here, there are definitely some angles to explore here. The first one is to get against the Yorkshire bowling – they look in poor form coming into this and conceded two very high scores at the start of July. Losing their England stars will be a big setback too – especially when the bowlers are under pressure as it is! The other major angle here though is to get on the chasing side – the chasing side has a fantastic record here and unless the score looks massive at over 200, I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see the chasing side come home.