An exciting summer of T20 cricket has arrived with the 2017 Natwest T20 blast. This is the fourth season of the domestic competition and the tournament is made up of all of the 18 first-class county teams which get divided across two divisions of nine teams. All of the matches in the T20 Blast are playing July through September and the final for this year’s edition is going to be held at Edgbaston on September 2nd.
You have a North division and a South division for the tournament and there is a total of fourteen games for each team in the pool stage. Each team will play six of the other teams twice (home and away) and will meet the other two teams just the once. There are two points for a win and one for a draw (or for an abandoned match). The top four from each of the divisions after that group stage then go through to meet up in the knockout stage in the quarter finals. The top two from each of the groups get a home tie for the quarter finals. Each team is allowed two overseas players.
North Division
Birmingham Bears, Derbyshire Falcons, Lancashire Lightning, Leicestershire Foxes, Northamptonshire Steelbacks, Nottinghamshire Outlaws, Worcestershire Rapids, Yorkshire Vikings, Durham Jets.
South Division
Essex Eagles, Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Kent Spitfires, Middlesex, Somerset, Surrey, Sussex Sharks
Clearly, the southern division teams haven’t caught on to cool branding names by the looks of it. So this T20 tournament is going to bring up some fast-paced, heavy hitting cricket betting action and don’t forget about those live in-play options at Ladbrokes for the matches in the event. The Northamptonshire Steelbacks are the reigning champions and so they will be carrying the pressure of holding on to their title. They have won it twice before and have been to the final in three of the last four editions of the tournament.
So they should be up there again as they clearly having something going for them at the club. A lot of punters were backing the Nottinghamshire Outlaws to make a run at the title last year and they dominated the North Division. But then they were knocked out at the semi final stage by eventual winner Northamptonshire. However, Notts could have something about them again this season to edge further because they have players enjoying good form.
Samit Patel and Steven Mullaney are going well for the Outlaws and they will be boosted by Alex Hales dedicating himself to the club scene now that he is out of the England set up. He only managed a couple of appearances in last season’s tournament, but the club can benefit from having him around for a lot longer and that will add to their chances of bringing home the bacon from the tournament. Given their recent track record, they will pique plenty of interest in the Ladbrokes T20 Blast betting market.
Another solid performance at the tournament has been Hampshire who have been to the semi finals in two of the last three seasons. The Royals have won the competition (in its various formats) twice before, just like the Northamptonshire Steelbacks have done. They will miss spinner Liam Dawson for some of it because of his England call up and after missing out on the knockout stage last season, they can pose a threat again. That was the first time since 2009 that they hadn’t made it that far but can be excused as they threw a lot of young players in last season.
They will benefit from that and be able to pack a punch again this season and can make the final four. The Southern Division failed to get a team to the final four last season, but Surrey look as if they can make a decent run at it this season and probably have one of the most well-balanced sides for the white-ball action. There is Aaron Finch, Kevin Pietersen and Moises Henriques in the squad and they, along with Sussex can haul themselves into the mix. From last season’s South Division it was Gloucestershire who seemed to hold all of the aces and with batsman Michael Klinger they will alway shave chance.
They really tanked in their quarter final match against Durham last season though, as they just didn’t live up to expectations and they will miss Andrew Tye from the attack but should be a contender. Then there is Middlesex who made it to the quarter finals last year and have acquired the services of T20 Specialist Coach Daniel Vettori to try and keep themselves up near the top of the form. They can boast a cracking top order as well with Brendon McCullum in there. The bowling may let them down though as they are lightweight on specialists in the shortened format of the game.
Going back to Durham in the North Division, they really challenged Northamptonshire in last year’s Final, but they may well be missing too many key players because of international call ups to pull off a repeat, notably Mark Wood and Ben Stokes. Yorkshire have a very strong looking team on paper and will look to go better than last year’s semis when they lost out to the Durham Jets. They probably have more depth than any other team in the competition and can challenge if they put it all together.
Predictions
This is going to be a very competitive tournament this season as most of the teams look as if they are really getting stronger and better equipped for the challenge. Surrey look some decent value at Ladbrokes to make a run at the title and Nottingham look the value to launch a challenge for the title from the North Division with the boost of having Hales available.
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