CRICKET – Clydesdale Bank 40; Warwickshire Bears v Hampshire Royal

Cricket Tips

 

Clydesdale Bank 40 – Group C
Warwickshire Bears (1st) v Hampshire Royals (7th)
Saturday 22nd May 2010 – 1345hrs
It’s top versus bottom in today’s fixture as Warwickshire Bears take on Hampshire Royals on Saturday at Edgbaston. The Bears will be keen to preserve their 100% record and extend their lead at the top of Group C to seven points before the June break.
The Bears have been mightily impressive in the 40 over competition so far, beating all-comers comprehensively; v Kent by 6 wickets, by 41 runs v Leicestershire, by 7 wickets v Durham, by 7 wickets v Hampshire in the earlier corresponding fixture and by 6 wickets v Kent in the return match.
Let’s take a look at the players in more detail – Bears batsmen; rather predictably it’s Jonathan Trott (CB40 299 runs @ avge 74.75 – 85.67Strike Rate) & Ian Bell (CB40 299 @ 59.80 – 99.00SR) who lead the way, but assisted by Jim Troughton (CB40 179 @ 59.66 – 89.50SR) and all-rounder Neil Carter (CB40 104 @ 20.80 – 157.57SR) who can score very quickly in the latter stages of the innings.
Bears bowlers; the wickets have been shared around by their attack with all-rounder Darren Maddy (CB40 10 wickets @ 18.00 – 5.29runs per over) just edging the wickets total, but backed up by leg-spinner Imran Tahir (CB40 8 @ 21.12 – 5.12rpo) and tall medium pacer Boyd Rankin (CB40 8 @ 12.00 – 5.33rpo). Young fast bowler Chris Woakes is on England Lions duty against Bangladesh but may yet  be available with Bangladesh struggling with one day to go, but Neil carter and Keith Barker can fill this gap more than adequately if he’s missing.
 
Hampshire Royals have made a disastrous start to their limited overs campaign and lie bottom of the group with no wins; losing by a massive 149 runs to Durham, lost by 35 runs to Nottinghamshire, lost by 7 wickets v Warwickshire and lost again to Nottinghamshire by 12 runs.
Royals batsmen; they haven’t posted any match-winning totals to date although were close against Notts in their last match. This is evident when looking at their leading run scorers, with Sean Ervine (CB40 136 @ 34.00 – 95.77SR), Neil McKenzie (CB40 106 @ 35.33 – 79.10SR) and Liam Dawson (CB40 100 @ 33.33 – 102.04SR) – not in the same class as The Bears.
Royals bowlers; well, they’ve struggled with the ball also as they’ve been unable to restrict the sides they’ve played so far, with all-rounder Sean Ervine (CB40 5 @ 28.00 – 5.83rpo) and James Tomlinson (CB40 5 @ 23.60 – 6.32rpo) the pick of the bowlers.
What is also interesting to note is that Warwickshire’s batsmen have a good strike-rate, while the Royals bowlers have all been expensive so far this season with all the bowlers close to, if not surpassing, the 6.00 runs per over mark.
With this in mind, I’m going for another Warwickshire win at reasonable odds.
Pick: Warwickshire Bears @ 1.50 with Betfred.
Side bet: Warwickshire Bears Highest Score first 15 overs @ 1.73 also with Betfred