The final week of group matches ahead of the quarter-finals next Tuesday, and these are the penultimate matches for ten sides. All times are BST, the prices are from green listed bookmaker Sportbet
Wednesday
6.30pm Lancashire v Worcestershire
Lancashire, 7th in the North Group table with only four wins from their ten games, are two points behind a top four place and probably need to win their last two games to qualify after three successive losses to Yorkshire, Northants and Birmingham.
This represents a good opportunity to get one of those wins as Worcestershire have had a very disappointing campaign, primarily caused by an inability to restrict totals with their bowling attack. There have been bright spots, notably the performances of young England A batsman Joe Clarke but with only three wins from eleven games
Lancashire are 8/13 here, Worcestershire 6/4. I find it difficult to see anything other than a home win
Thursday
6.30pm Leicestershire v Derbyshire
Leicestershire sit 5th in the North Group and four qualify. They have two group stage games to play, both against teams above them in the table.
Leicester’s strength is in hard hitting batting from Luke Ronchi and Mark Cosgrave and the experienced opening bowler Clint McKay. In recent results they beat Yorkshire and Northants to stay right in contention for qualification
Derbyshire are 4th in the North group with 13 points and three games to play this week which will decide if they are surprise qualifiers for the knock out stages. Viljoen and Tahir have both taken 12 wickets in the competition for Derbyshire this summer and a slew of domestic batsmen have performed well, notably Wayne Madsen with 433 runs
In their last match they lost to Notts by 8 runs failing to chase 189 and they play Durham home Tuesday.
Prices here are Leicestershire Evens, Derbyshire 4/5. I like the home underdogs at the price.
6.30pm Surrey v Gloucestershire
Surrey arrested a slump of three losses in a row beating Sussex on Sunday thanks to Aaron Finch scoring113*. They have two games to go and might need to win both in a very congested south table as they have the worst of Net Run Rate of the many teams currently on 12 points.
Gloucestershire play Middlesex away on Tuesday. Gloucestershire are 5th, only outside the top 4 on Net Run Rate. They have no less than four no results in their 12 games. In their two most recent games they have lost scoring only 138 and 121. This is their last group stage game and irrespective of the Middlesex result they will probably need to win both of their games to qualify
Prices here are Srrey 8/13, Gloucestershire 11/8. Surrey are too short, Gloucestershire’s batsmen are in no form. No bet.
7pm Yorkshire v Northants
Yorkshire sat top of the table but results faltered and they now have 5 wins and 5 losses, one tie in their 13 games. They simply have to win this game to stand a chance of qualifying given their recent results. They lost to Leicestershire, won the roses match and before that lost to Durham (likely to be a key loss, by only one run) and Derbyshire
Northants have been solidly in the top four of the North Group all the way through the competition despite their most recent successive losses to Leicestershire and Warwickshire.
They have two matches to go and are third in the table with 14 points. Their last game is at home to Durham on Friday which they would expect to win.
At Yorkshire 8/13 Northants 5/4 you have to think the away team are the value price.
7pm Essex v Kent
During the first half of the competition Essex were bottom of the table and now, a run of results later, beating Gloucestershire, Middlesex and Hampshire in succession they are fourth in the group and in charge of their own destiny with two matches of their group stage to go.
Kent are a point behind Essex but way down the table. They host Surrey on Friday night. Qualification is unlikely but they will certainly need two wins to stand a chance.
Recently they suffered losses to Hampshire and Sussex not defending 167 and 163 but a surprisingly facile win over Somerset kept their hopes alive
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