Tomorrow see’s the final of the Yorkshire Bank 40 competition between Nottinghamshire (4/9) and Glamorgan (2/1). Live on Sky Sports 11:30.
Nottinghamshire cruised passed Somerset in the semis, whilst Glamorgan had a fairly comfortable victory in the end to pre-tournament fancies Hampshire.
In the group stages Notts ended up top of their group on 18 points, with 9 wins. Whereas Glamorgan managed to qualify in the only best runners up place, finishing on 17 points. So this highlights how tight the competition has been and so far Glamorgan have upset the odds to make it to the final. Pre-tournament they were 28/1 to win the competition with Notts at 5/1.
Nottinghamshire pre-tournament were one of the fancies with Hampshire, who have had good one day campaigns over the last few years and were holders of the competition. Each year it appears Nottinghamshire are up there but have failed to win a one day competition since 1991. Many believe it will be there year and the odds are well in their favour.
Notts have a really strong batting line up on paper and it’s been a mystery for many years how they’ve struggled to win an one day competition after usually breezing through the group stages but lose out in the knockout rounds. Saturday see’s their team boosted with England internationals Graeme Swann and Stuart Broad coming into the side.
Swann has only played 2 games prior to the final, whilst Broad hasn’t made an appearance. It’s questionable to whether they are needed with a settled bowling attack throughout the tournament who have performed well. Ajmal Shahzad (7/2 to be Notts top bowler) and Jake Ball (7/2) are their top bowlers so far taking 19 wickets in the competition, which see them in joint 5th position in the overall number wickets taken, not far behind are Harry Gurney (7/2) and Steven Mullaney (4/1) on 17.
So it shows their bowling attack have performed well as a unit and have more or less equally contributed, so it’s questionable whether to break up a winning side. There’s no doubt the quality of Broad (5/2) and Swann (10/3) would add to it, but the bowlers are performing well, it will be a difficult choice to leave someone out.
In the batting James Taylor (4/1 to be Notts top runscorer) has lead the way in the runscoring front with 563 runs in 12 innings, but Samit Patel (5/1) is only 7 runs behind him. Opening batsman Alex Hales (7/2) is on 473, these will be key players to get the runs for Nottinghamshire, they also have Michael Lumb (7/2) who gets the side off to a flyer and overseas star David Hussey (9/2) who is the finisher of the side coming in down the order.
Don’t write Glamorgan off just yet, they have battled hard so far to get the final and will be looking to put up a fight. Batsman Chris Cooke (4/1 to top score for Glamorgan) has scored exactly 500 runs in this competition and they have Mark Wallace (5/1) and Jim Allenby (9/2)scoring over 400 runs a piece to help Glamorgan reach the final. Experienced batsman Murray Goodwin (5/1) adds a bit of stability in the middle order.
Amoungst Glamorgans ranks they have the leading wicket taker of the tournament. Michael Hogan (9/4 top Glamorgan bowler) has taken 26 wickets so far and he’ll be hoping to add a few more, he is the key man for Glamorgan as he leads the bowling attack. He’ll have support from Graham Wagg (17 wickets) (7/2), Dean Cosker (15 wickets) (7/20 and the experience of former England fast bowler, Simon Jones (7/2).
Notts clearly have alot more quality in their side, everyone has performed well and this year could be their year but the team spirit of Glamorgan could see them lift their first trophy since 2004. The odds are well against Glamorgan but anything can happen in a final, it can just take one innings to take the game away. Weather permitting it’s set to be a good final.
Recommendations:
Hales and Lumb are known for their big hitting at the top of the order. When they both get in they play freely and runs come quickly. Hales can be backed 2/1 to hit over 0.5 sixes with Ladbrokes, whereas Lumb can be backed at 5/2. There is a lot of big prices in this market Patel at 5/2 is also a good price.
- No. of Sixes – Alex Hales – OVER 0.5 – 2/1 Ladbrokes
- No. of Sixes – Michael Lumb – OVER 0.5 – 5/2 Ladbrokes
- No. of Sixes – Chris Cooke – OVER 0.5 – 7/2 Ladbrokes
- Top Nottinghamshire Batsman – James Taylor – 4/1
- Top Glamorgan Batman – Chris Cooke – 4/1
- Top Glamorgan Bowler – Michael Hogan – 9/4
- Top Notts Bowler – Harry Gurney – 7/2
Betfair have a promotion at the minute. If you stake £20 on the exchange on this market and you make an overall profit on the exchange, they’ll give you a 10% bonus on your profits! You do need to opt in though.
Lumb hit a six so that’s one winner out of the three over 0.5 sixes. The other two got in hit a few fours but didn’t tee off as i’d expect. Cooke top scored for Glamorgan, with 46. Got out at a cruicial time which put Notts in the driving seat and they won from there. Gurney started off with a wicket with his first ball, the seventh ball of the game.
From then on i thought it’d be his day, unfortunately they held him back to the last few overs but Notts had already bowled Glamorgan out so he didn’t finish off his full amount of overs possible. Hogan on the other hand took 2 wickets, which was joint top with 2 others. Taylor started off well with 23 but Jones got him with a good deliver and the top score ended up at 53 for Notts.
So overall, 3 winners. Lumb 6 at 3.5, Cooke to runscorer at 5.0 and Hogan top wicket taker at 9/4 DH3 – which effectively makes it a push (1.08 return) so that’s 9.58 points back from 7 bets. Could’ve been a couple more but it’s 2.58pts profit.