ABOUT THE MATCH
The fourth quarter-final of the Vitality T20 Blast 2019 will see Gloucestershire face-off against Derbyshire Falcons. The match will be played on September 7 at the County Ground in Bristol.
Both the teams are coming into this knockout clash having won their last match. Gloucestershire pipped Sussex Sharks at the County Ground in Hove last Friday. Put in to bat first, Sussex scored 163/8 in their 20 overs.
Gloucestershire, in reply, got off to a flyer and eventually managed to get over the line off the final ball of the game to win by three wickets. Derbyshire, in their previous match, registered an 11-run victory over Lancashire Lightning last week at the Old Trafford in Manchester. Opting to bat first, Derbyshire posted 162/3 on the board before running through Lancashire’s top-order and restricting them to 151/9 in their 20 overs.
TOSS PREDICTION
The pitch is expected to be a good one to bat on and it should remain the same across the forty overs. And since the side batting second has won three of the last four matches at this ground, the team that wins the toss here is more likely to chase.
PITCH AND CONDITION
Cool and clear weather has been forecast for Saturday evening with a very low chance of precipitation. Temperatures are expected to be around 13-16 degrees Celsius while humidity should be between 66% and 76% during the match.
The Bristol County Ground has hosted five matches so far in this year’s Vitality Blast 2019 and 150+ has been scored here on six occasions which is enough to show how good the surface has been for batting. The pitch, however, will have something in it for the spinners.
PROBABLE PLAYING XI OF Gloucestershire
Michael Klinger (c), Miles Hammond, James Bracey (wk), Ian Cockbain, Jack Taylor, Ryan Higgins, Graeme van Buuren, Tom Smith, Andrew Tye, David Payne, Josh Shaw
PROBABLE PLAYING XI OF Derbyshire
Luis Reece, Billy Godleman (c), Wayne Madsen, Leus du Plooy, Alex Hughes, Matthew Critchley, Fynn Hudson-Prentice, Anuj Dal, Daryn Smit (wk), Logan van Beek, Ravi Rampaul
MATCH PREVIEW
Gloucestershire
- Gloucestershire made only one change to their side in the last match against Sussex, dropping Chris Liddle for Josh Shaw. Although the latter returned expensive figures, conceding 42 runs off his four overs, the team might want to give him another opportunity.
- Gloucestershire has no injury concerns heading into this quarter-final and we don’t expect them to tweak their line-up for this crucial match.
- Michael Klinger and Miles Hammond will continue to open the batting while David Payne and Andrew Tye will be the new-ball bowlers.
- Gloucestershire did not start off too well this season, winning only one of their first four completed fixtures.
- But they managed to turn things around thereafter and ended up finishing second in the South Group points table with 18 points.
- Gloucestershire won seven, lost three and tied one out of their eleven completed matches during the league stage.
- They have won their last four matches on the bounce. After sharing points with Somerset in a rained-out encounter, Gloucestershire secured three consecutive wins – against Somerset (in the second clash of the season), Kent and Sussex.
Derbyshire
- Derbyshire has been unchanged since their last two matches, and since they have won both of those, they are unlikely to disturb their winning combination for this upcoming knockout match against Gloucestershire.
- Luis Reece and Matthew Critchley swapped batting positions last time out, and after Critchley’s failure with the bat, we expect Reece to regain his opening spot.
- Wayne Madsen and Leus du Plooy should continue to bat at their usual number three and four positions respectively.
- Derbyshire will probably throw the new balls to Logan van Beek and Ravi Rampaul once again.
- Derbyshire Falcons have finished third in the North Group standings at the conclusion of the league stage with seven wins, five defeats and a couple of washouts from their fourteen matches.
- They have won five of their last six completed matches including the most recently played three. Derbyshire played their last match against Lancashire whom they beat by 11 runs.
- Prior to that, they inflicted heavy defeats on Northamptonshire and Leicestershire – winning both of those games by a margin of nine wickets.
PROBABLE WINNING TEAM:
Both the teams have given impressive performances of late and there is not much to choose between them. But considering the home advantage, the scales seem to be tipped in favor of Gloucestershire.
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