Lancashire v Kent Spitfires
Royal London Cup, Final
Saturday September 17, 2022, 11am
Trent Bridge
It is no surprise that Lancashire are here. They were 8/1 favourites to win the competition at the start of last month and our pre-tournament tip.
Despite missing seven players to the Hundred throughout the group stages, they had the depth to cope.
And while their progression through to Trent Bridge tomorrow was by no means plain sailing, including a group stage loss to Kent at Canterbury, they are there and primed to make up for previous disappointments.
They have been on the fringes of a County Championship title battle this summer and couldn’t have come closer to winning the Vitality Blast, coming out on the wrong side of a last ball finish in July’s final against Hampshire.
But I fully expect them to triumph here and would be taking Paddy Power’s 8/11 on them to do so.
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Lancashire to beat Kent - 8/11
Graham fancies his pre-tournament pick to do the business
Cricket
September 17, 2022
11:00 am GMT+1
There is a significant thing to bear in mind here. Kent have already said they are not going to consider those players who were unavailable to them during the Hundred - the likes of Sam Billings and Daniel Bell-Drummond. Lancashire have not said that. I expect them to consider spinners Matt Parkinson and Tom Hartley.
Kent can secure most sixes market in a defeat
My suspicion is that tomorrow will be a high-scoring final. Both sides have enjoyed good success with the bat this season, and Trent Bridge is usually a high-scoring ground.
A high-scoring game should, therefore, give Kent plenty of chance to hit the most sixes.
Betfred have them at 6/5 compared to Lancashire’s 10/11 to do so, and I think that’s appealing.
So far in the competition, Kent have hit 49 sixes to Lancashire’s 38. Wicketkeeper bat Ollie Robinson has hit 13 and middle order hitter Alex Blake 11. Others with power include all-rounders Darren Stevens and Grant Stewart.
Lancashire have only one player in double figures - Luke Wells with 14.
Luke to dip into the Wells
You could throw a blanket over Lancashire’s leading run-scorers in the Royal London Cup. Three batters - Luke Wells, Keaton Jennings and Steven Croft - sit within 26 runs of each other.
Wells leads the way with 339, Jennings 318 and Croft 313. With that in mind, it is difficult to predict their top batter in tomorrow’s final.
Instead, I am going to play safe and suggest a half-century in the match for opener Wells, which is priced up at an inviting 3/1 with Ladbrokes.
Wells has posted three half-centuries in nine games through the competition and is coming into this final off the back of an excellent Roses Championship game last week when he scored 84 and 124 in a draw.
He will also have a bit of extra fire to succeed tomorrow. Earlier this week, Lancashire were docked six points in the County Championship due to poor on-field behaviour - questioning umpires decisions. It ended their slim hopes of winning that title. And Wells accepted he was part of the issue and took to social media to apologise.
In terms of Kent, one price does jump out. Their captain Joe Denly is 5/1 to be their top batter in the final. That, to me, is too good to refuse.
Other firms have him around the 7/2 mark, but Ladbrokes have him further down in a market which includes the likes of Billings and Zak Crawley. As previously advised, Kent have said they won’t be considered.
Denly hasn’t played all the RL50 matches this season due to injury, though has played six and posted scores of 42, 61 and 65.
Coming in at number four, he has been solid but not spectacular. I would be happy to take 5/1 that tomorrow will be the former England batter’s day.
Ps. Surely Stevo will not go quietly!
Darren Stevens will surely have some sort of impact on this final. He simply can’t go quietly as he bids farewell to Kent.
Ladbrokes have the 46-year-old at 5/6 to score over 22.5 runs with the bat.
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