Cricket: County Championship 2008

[kevshat]

Wednesday 6 August 2008	Home	Away	BPP
Durham v Kent (11:00BST)	1.66	2.40	101.67 %	Details »
Hide « Durham v Kent
Hampshire v Yorkshire (11:00BST)	2.14	1.90	99.36 %	Details »
Hide « Hampshire v Yorkshire
Lancashire v Sussex (11:00BST)	1.70	2.40	100.49 %	Details »
Hide « Lancashire v Sussex
Somerset v Nottinghamshire (11:00BST)	1.90	2.10	100.00 %	Details »

Wednesday 6 August 2008	Home	Away	BPP
Glamorgan v Middlesex (11:00BST)	2.62	1.57	101.73 %	Details »
Hide « Glamorgan v Middlesex
Gloucestershire v Leicestershire (11:00BST)	2.30	1.73	101.28 %	Details »
Hide « Gloucestershire v Leicestershire
Worcestershire v Derbyshire (11:00BST)	1.44	3.10	101.49 %	Details »
Hide « Worcestershire v Derbyshire
Thursday 7 August 2008	Home	Away	BPP
Warwickshire v Northamptonshire (11:00BST)	1.62	2.50	101.73 %	Details »

I'm going with just one to begin with. Although it's at Manchester so I'm not sure how much play there will be .

10pts Sussex to beat Lancashire (DNB) 11/8 Totesport

Sussex head up to Manchester to take on Lancashire with only 1pt between them in the Championship table. Lancashire drew with Hampshire last time out while Sussex drew their last match against Somerset. Lancashire won the reverse fixture between these two at Hove.

Lancashire will go into this match without Mal Loye who has a back problem again. Andrew Flintoff and Jimmy Anderson are away with England so they don't play. Iain Sutcliffe is in the squad for Loye while Kyle Hogg is added to the squad but looks the man likely to miss out from the 12. Stuart Law continues to captain the side.

Sussex welcome Mushtaq Ahmed back into their side. Matt Prior and Luke Wright may well be playing their last Championship match for a while having been called up for England. Carl Hopkinson is likely to go up to open alongside Michael Yardy. Will Beer returns from England under 19 duty for Chris Adams' men.

Mushtaq Ahmed could be the difference here. I'm still nowhere near convinced Lancashire have a batting lineup and that's something Susse definitely do have with Martin-Jenkins possibly coming in at number 8 here. It will turn for Mushy up at Old Trafford and I think he can inspire the defending champions to pick up a win here.

[Spooner]

Sport	Cricket
Event	Durham v Kent (Day 3, Start time 11:00am)
Selection	Durham
Strength	10/10
Date	08/08/2008
Bookmaker/Price	Ladbrokes @ 1.40 (Back)
Reasoning	Current state of play at the end of Day 2 Durham 146 & 108 Kent 78 & 116-8 Kent are really struggling here, There last hope is (van Jaarsveld 46 Not Out) which is the highest score of the game. Kent need another 61 to win the game and I just cant see them getting it on this wicket with only 2 wickets left. Even if van Jaarsveld stays in, You can see the other two wickets going pretty quickly. The price of 2/5 doesn't exactly excite you in anyway but at the state of play this looks a good bet.

[kevshat]

Nice one Spooner. Don't think Rob Key was too pleased though . Weather beat me today with Sussex looking like certain victors had they got on the pitch today. Stakes back this week so it's as you were going into next week.

[kevshat]

Tuesday 12 August 2008	Home	Away	BPP
Durham v Nottinghamshire (11:00BST)	1.75	2.37	99.25 %	Details »
Hide « Durham v Nottinghamshire
Lancashire v Yorkshire (11:00BST)	1.66	2.50	100.24 %	Details »
Hide « Lancashire v Yorkshire
Somerset v Surrey (11:00BST)	1.57	2.60	102.10 %	Details »

Tuesday 12 August 2008	Home	Away	BPP
Warwickshire v Essex (10:45BST)	1.75	2.24	101.79 %	Details »
Hide « Warwickshire v Essex
Derbyshire v Middlesex (11:00BST)	2.15	1.85	100.57 %	Details »
Hide « Derbyshire v Middlesex
Glamorgan v Gloucestershire (11:00BST)	1.94	1.95	102.83 %	Details »

Not sure how much play we'll get in these games but I'm going with 2.

10pts Durham to beat Nottinghamshire (DNB) 8/11 Ladbrokes

The top 2 do battle at the Riverside this week as Durham in 2nd entertain Notts who are top as the minute. Only 1pt stands between them though so this is a vital match. All eyes will be on the pitch after Robert Key's outburst about it last week.

Durham will be without Paul Collingwood and Steve Harmison who have been rested by the ECB. The good lord only knows why Harmison can't play because he doesn't play one day cricket anymore. Durham didn't miss Harmison last week though with Mark Davies coming in and taking wickets. Shivnerine Chanderpaul is the star man in the Dynamos batting lineup but Di Venuto, Smith and Benkenstein are all capable of scoring runs.

Notts will be without Stuart Broad and Ryan Sidebottom who have also both been rested by the ECB. Samit Patel is also unavailable as he'll be playing for the England Lions side on Thursday. Matt Wood will come into the middle order in his place. Chris Read is fit again and will skipper the side while Adam Voges plays his last match of the summer. Charlie Shreck and Darren Pattinson will lead the seam attack.

Durham are just beginning to get on a roll and are usually very tough to beat with their seam attack on the Riverside wicket. Notts are missing one or two and I think Durham look the safer option here.

10pts Warwickshire to beat Essex (DNB) 8/11 Blue Square

2nd in the Division 2 table Warwickshire play 4th placed Essex at Edgbaston with the Bears knowing that a decent win will send them top of the table and really strengthen their promotion claims. This is almost must win time for Essex if they want promotion but I would expect them to have more than one eye on their Lords final on Saturday.

Warwickshire will be at full strength for this one excluding their England players who they've been without all summer. Ian Bell is being rested by England as is Tim Ambrose although again, why he is being rested is anyone's guess as he isn't the England one day squad either. Chris Martin and Chris Woakes are in the squad as is Boyd Rankin after being out for a while. Darren Maddy, Ian Westwood, Jon Trott and Jim Troughton have all been in good form with the bat this summer.

Essex will be without England duo Alastair Cook and Ravi Bopara. Cook's being rested while Bopara is with the England Lions squad. Varun Chopra is likely to come in for Bopara who is a big loss for Essex with the form he is in. Graham Napier and David Masters have been very good with the ball this season while Danish Kaneria is always a danger.

Essex are likely to have one eye on Saturday, it's impossible not to, especially after Kent did them in the twenty20 semi finals. Warwickshire have gone along under the radar this season but have played some really good cricket and I'll take them to see off Essex here.

[kevshat]

Two draws last week. This competition is getting frustrating now. We can't find a break in the weather to get any results .

Tuesday 19 August 2008	Home	Away	BPP
Hampshire v Somerset (11:00BST)	2.30	1.72	101.37 %	Details »
Hide « Hampshire v Somerset
Wednesday 20 August 2008	Home	Away	BPP
Kent v Lancashire (11:00BST)	2.00	1.90	102.38 %	Details »
Hide « Kent v Lancashire
Surrey v Sussex (11:00BST)	2.37	1.72	100.00 %	Details »

Tuesday 19 August 2008	Home	Away	BPP
Gloucestershire v Northamptonshire (11:00BST)	2.30	1.69	102.65 %	Details »
Hide « Gloucestershire v Northamptonshire
Wednesday 20 August 2008	Home	Away	BPP
Essex v Worcestershire (11:00BST)	2.10	1.80	103.17 %	Details »
Hide « Essex v Worcestershire
Middlesex v Leicestershire (11:00BST)	1.57	2.50	103.64 %	Details »

Of the two matches tomorrow I like the outsiders in both but weather and team news isn't great. I might see how day one goes and try and get a bet on then. I'll come back tomorrow with Wednesday's bets if I have any.

[kevshat]

I'm going to go with one tomorrow.

10pts Kent to beat Lancashire (DNB) 10/11 Coral

Kent come into this match in 7th place in the table and Lancashire are 4th but there are only actually 9pts between the two such is the tightness of this division. Kent stuttered a bit in the lead up to the FP final which I would imagine was a reaction to losing the twenty20 final but the way they beat Derbyshire on Monday suggests the hangover is over. Lancashire have been frustrated by rain in recent weeks and haven't been on the park much.

Kent will have Darren Stevens and Justin Kemp back for this match but Azhar Mahmood and Yasir Arafat are unlikely to play. Robbie Joseph will play after his matchwinning haul on Monday. Lancashire have recalled Mark Chilton to replace Iain Sutcliffe who suddenly retired last week. James Anderson and Andrew Flintoff are on England duty.

I think Kent are the better side of these two. I can't be backing Lancashire with such a weak top 6. Kent bat all the way down and are probably stronger in the top 6 than Lancashire and at Canterbury, runs will probably be the key. For that reason I'll side with the Spitfires.

[kevshat]

Kent won that pretty easily. It was nice to get 4 days of cricket in. +9.09pts for the week and up to +3.92pts for the championship season with 4 weeks of the season left.

[TheRat]

Well done Kev
Back into the black stuff!!

We completed a good chase of 347 today. Should really get promo now

[kevshat]

Cheers mate. Been a struggle with the weather and a bit of bad luck having at least 2 certain wins washed out on the last day but I've kept going. Hopefully I can finish well.

Your next match is the big one. Beat Warks and you're up. Lose and it's squeaky bum time .

[mdivenuto]

I dont normally back teams that have won 0 games all season, and I especially dont back teams called Surrey. However, I am breaking these rules for..

Surrey to beat Lancs 11/8 Coral

Lancs seem all over the shop. Challenging for the title 2 weeks ago they seem to have lost interest and the question marks about their top order remain. Surrey with Rampsforcash back inform are no great shakes in my opinion but at the price seem worthy of a wager

[mdivenuto]

kiss of death, max oram tips up surrey

[kevshat]

Originally Posted by mdivenuto

kiss of death, max oram tips up surrey

He's on form now mate . At least the day of rain looks to have saved you from the loss mate so you should get your cash back at worst .