Lancashire vs Durham, VITALITY T20 BLAST 2021, Today Match Prediction 16 July 2021

lancs vs dur Match Prediction & Analysis

Vitality Blast`s North Group has 3 qualification spots for grab with Nottinghamshire sealing their spot. Five teams are fray in the race with Lancashire and Durham in the fourth and fifth places in point’s table currently. Lancashire need to win both their remaining 2 matches to qualify directly else they need to win at least one match and hope the other results go their way. Durham must win this match to have a chance to qualify for the next round. If Lancashire manage to get 2 points from this match it would be curtains for Durham in this season.

TEAMS PREVIEW

Lancashire Preview

Lancashire openers Finn Allen (66 runs) and Keaton Jennings (54 runs) registered a 112-run opening partnership as their team raced past the 144-run target inside 16 overs. Their middle order trio of Steven Croft, Dane Vilas, and Alex Davies are slightly inconsistent with the bat and we hop them to return to form in this important game.

Spin duo of Steven Croft and Tom Harley opened the bowling attack and dismissed the opposition openers with a wicket each in their first overs. Danny Lamb and Liam Hurt then ran through the middle order with combined figures of 8-0-49-5 in the match. Luke Wood and Liam Wells too chipped with good spells to restrict the opposition to 142/8 in 20 overs.

Top players to bet on:

Keaton Jennings – Jennings has formed a splendid partnership with Finn Allen at the top. He has scored 240 runs in just 6 innings with 2 fifties at a strike rate of 125. Finn Allen and Keaton Jennings have contributed to almost 50% of team`s runs.

Tom Hartley – Hartley leads the bowling attack with 10 wickets at an economy rate of 6.3 RPO. He will have a huge role to play as they miss Mathew Parkinson and Saqib Mahmood in their bowling attack.  

Lancashire Predicted Playing XI:

Finn Allen, Keaton Jennings, Alex Davies, Dane Vilas (c & wk), Steven Croft, Rob Jones, Luke Wood, Danny Lamb, Luke Wells, Tom Hartley, Liam Hurt

Lancashire Actual Playing XI:

Steven Croft, Luke Wood, Liam Hurt, Luke Wells, Tom Hartley, Finn Allen, Alex Davies, Rob Jones, Dane Vilas, Danny Lamb, Keaton Jennings

Durham Preview

Durham batting unit put on a combined effort with 5 of the top-6 players playing 20+ & 30+ cameos to take their team to 176 runs. Sean Dickson top scored with 37 runs while Graham Clark (26 runs off 10 balls) and Scott Borthwick (33 runs off 18 balls) took the aggressor`s role in the first and final overs respectively.

Their bowlers failed to defend the target as they lost the match in a last ball thriller. Paul Van Meekran was the pick of the bowlers with 2 wickets. Matty Potts had a forgetful outing with figures of 4-0-50-1 in the game. Ben Raine failed to defend 11 runs in the last over as they failed to clinch the crunch moments.

Top players to bet on:

Graham Clark – Clark has scores of 40 & 26 in the last 2 matches at a strike rate of 140+. He has the ability to pierce the gaps easily in the power play and use the lofted shot to great effect to score runs freely.  

Matty Potts – Matty Potts is their leading with 14 scalps so far but his economy rate of 9.2 RPO is a big concern for the team. He must look to strangle the batters with disciplined line and lengths in this match.  

Durham Predicted Playing XI:

David Bedingham, Graham Clark, Cameron Bancroft (c), Sean Dickson, Ned Eckersley (wk), Ben Raine, Matty Potts, Harry Crawshaw, Scott Borthwick, Paul van Meekeren, Liam Trevaskis

Durham Actual Playing XI:

Brydon Carse, Scott Borthwick, Cameron Bancroft, Ned Eckersley, Matty Pots, Ben Raine, Graham Clark, Liam Trevaskis, David Bedingham, Sean Dickson, Paul Van Meekeren

PITCH AND WEATHER CONDITIONS

Weather Conditions

Manchester will have a bright and sunny weather on the match day with no chances of rain. We can expect a full game with no external disturbances whatsoever.  No team has scored runs in excess of 175 runs at this venue so far. 

Venue Details

Manchester is having tough conditions to bat on owing to the slowness and uneven spongy bounce on the track. Batsmen need to apply themselves before going for a big shots. We expect the runs to be around 150-160 runs in this match.

Toss: To Bat

The pitch is expected to slow down as the match progresses and we expect both captains to bat first as chasing becomes tough here.