Middlesex vs Gloucestershire, Royal London One-Day Cup, Today Match Prediction 21 Apr 2019

mdx vs gloucs Match Prediction & Analysis

England and Wales first-class county teams play the Royal London One Day Cup - a 50 over one-day competition which began in 2014 and is played in a round-robin fashion between 18 teams which are geographically divided into two groups – North and South – of 9 teams each. The top three teams from each group advance to the knockout stage.

Gloucestershire has won the tournament once whereas Middlesex is yet to win it. Moreover, Middlesex never even qualified for the quarters in the last 5 seasons.

Gloucestershire is coming into this match with a win under their belt against Surrey. Middlesex too beat Essex in a high scoring encounter. It will be interesting to see who gets the second win under their belt.

TEAMS PREVIEW

Middlesex Preview

Middlesex have not been very successful when it comes to Royal London One Day cup. However, they have had a good record against Gloucestershire winning 3 of last 4 completed matches. In the opening game of the tournament, they warned everyone against taking them lightly after defending a mammoth 366 by 38 runs against Essex.

Batting first against Essex, Middlesex captain David Malan scored 95 to help build the foundation for huge Middlesex score by the end of the innings. Almost all the Middlesex batsmen got starts, however, Nick Gubbins and George Scott carried to get respective half-centuries to help Middlesex reach 366. Despite opener Varun Chopra’s century, 366 proved too much for Essex against Middlesex bowlers, especially, Nathan Sowter who ended up getting 6 for 62.

Middlesex had a great start to the campaign. They have always ended up at the lower half of the group. They would be keen to change it under new captain David Malan who himself had a good start to the tournament.

Middlesex Predicted Playing XI:

DJ Malan (c), JA Simpson (wk), PR Stirling, EJG Morgan, SS Eskinazi, NRT Gubbins, GFB Scott, TS Roland-Jones, NA Sowter, TG Helm, TJ Murtagh

Gloucestershire Preview

Gloucestershire has been one of the five teams to win the Royal London One-Day Cup, they won the 2015 edition of the tournament. However, they haven’t enjoyed much success against Middlesex in this tournament since 2014. Gloucestershire must be looking to change that.

They have started the season well beating Surrey comprehensively by 147 runs. Captain Chris Dent paved the way at the top of the order by top-scoring for his team with 75 runs. Wicketkeeper Roderick provided apt support with 74 of his own. Defending 235 on a tough surface at Bristol, Gloucestershire did not allow a single Surrey player to reach 20. Tom Smith and Ryan Higgins took three wickets each to skittle the opposition for just 88 runs.

Gloucestershire has reached quarters in 2014 and won in 2015. But thereafter they have not been very successful. Captain Dent would want to build on a good start to the 2019 season and get the second win against Middlesex at the Lord's.

Gloucestershire Predicted Playing XI:

CDJ Dent (c), GH Roderick (wk), GT Hankins, IA Cockbain, BAC Howell, JMR Taylor, RF Higgins, TMJ Smith, DJ Worrall, MD Taylor, CJ Liddle

Weather Conditions

This match will be played at the legendary Lord’s stadium. Lord’s favors the chasing teams as the teams batting second have traditionally won 60% of the ODIs played at this venue. The trend is similar in Royal London One Day Cup history. About 62% of the completed matches have been won by chasing teams.

Toss: To Bowl

The team winning the toss should Bowl first at the iconic Lord’s stadium. Captains so far seem comfortable to chase.