5th July 2012

Surrey vs Kent Betting: Kent can keep their faint qualification hopes alive with a win at The Oval

Surrey are in the middle of a big and emotional week and they host Kent in the televised Friends Life T20 fixture on Thursday night. The home side can no longer qualify for the knockout stages of the tournament while Kent, who haven’t started brilliantly can still qualify as a best third placed side if they win their remaining three matches. Surrey go into the match as 8/11 shots with Coral.

Obviously emotions are running quite high at The Oval at the minute with the recent tragic death of Tom Maynard and with his funeral the day before this match I would think playing a cricket match is the last thing Surrey want to be doing here. Not only has Maynard’s death left an emotional scar over this Surrey side but it has impacted massively on their personnel as captain Rory Hamilton-Brown, Maynard’s best friend, needs a break from cricket to grieve properly. One bright spot for the Lions is that Kevin Pietersen does play.

Kent started this competition quite well but in recent matches they have haemorrhaged runs like water coming out of a tap. They haven’t been able to put the stop on anyone but in the main they have gone ok with the bat which will be a boost for them given that they will be on a good deck here. Given that he knows every dimension of this ground Azhar Mahmood may return to the side to face his former county.

Forgetting the emotions and the damage the Maynard death has had, this Surrey side just isn’t good enough in my opinion. Their batting line up is a shambles really and with Mark Ramprakash expected to announce his retirement on the day of this game they look at least three genuine batsmen light. Kent look well balanced to me and barring Kevin Pietersen doing something spectacular I would expect Kent to complete a routine double over the emotionally battered Surrey.

Back Kent to beat Surrey for a 5/10 stake at 2.20 with Betfred

» £50 Free Bet at Betfred