ABOUT THE MATCH

Warwickshire (Birmingham Bears) and Worcestershire Rapids will look to extend their winning momentum when they take on each other in this North Group fixture of the Vitality Blast 2019. The match will be played on August 23 at the Edgbaston in Birmingham.

Worcestershire is coming on the back of a three-run win in what was an absolute thriller against the Durham Jets last week. Put in to bat first, they could manage only 117 off their 20 overs.

The game seemed to be getting away from them quickly with Durham being 79 for none at one stage. But Ed Barnard’s initial breakthrough triggered a collapse and Worcestershire ended up snatching victory from the jaws of defeat as Durham finished at 114-6. Warwickshire, on the other hand, had to share points with Lancashire Lightning in their last match which got abandoned due to rain.

TOSS PREDICTION

The Edgbaston has hosted four matches so far in this year’s Vitality T20 Blast and the toss-winning team has elected to bowl on three occasions. Since the pitch will probably remain the same throughout the duration of the game, the team that wins the toss here is likely to continue the trend of bowling first.

PITCH AND CONDITIONS

The pitch at the Edgbaston has been very good for batting in the recent past with 150+ being scored four times in the last three matches.

Clear and cool weather has been forecast for Friday evening with temperatures ranging from 17 to 22 degrees Celsius. Humidity is expected to be between 59% and 76% during the course of the match. There could be a light breeze blowing across the stadium.

PROBABLE PLAYING XI OF Warwickshire

Dominic Sibley, Sam Hain, Adam Hose, Will Rhodes, Matthew Lamb, Michael Burgess (wk), Chris Green, Alex Thomson, Henry Brookes, Jeetan Patel (c), Oliver Hannon-Dalby

PROBABLE PLAYING XI OF Worcestershire

Riki Wessels, Martin Guptill, Hamish Rutherford, Wayne Parnell, Thomas Charles Fell, Ben Cox (wk), Brett D’Oliveira (c), Ed Barnard, Daryl Mitchell, Dillon Pennington, Patrick Brown

MATCH PREVIEW

Warwickshire

• Warwickshire (Birmingham Bears) currently find themselves in an uncomfortable position.
• They have played ten matches so far this season out of which they have won three and lost four.
• One of those encounters resulted in a tie while two were washed out including their previous outing last week against Lancashire Lightning.
• After sharing points with a tie against Yorkshire Vikings, Warwickshire suffered big defeats in their next two fixtures – against Leicestershire by 55 runs and against Nottinghamshire by 28 runs (D/L method) – before securing a 15-run victory against Lancashire.

Worcestershire

• Worcestershire is comfortably positioned on the second spot in the North Group standings with five wins, three losses and a couple of washouts from ten league matches.
• They made an excellent start to their campaign this year, winning four of their first five completed fixtures.
• But they lost all their momentum thereafter with back-to-back defeats in their next two completed matches – against Leicestershire Foxes by 33 runs and against Derbyshire Falcons by 20 runs.
• Worcestershire, however, has bounced back in the tournament with a narrow three-run win over Durham Jets in their last match.

PROBABLE WINNING TEAM:

Worcestershire has beaten them five times in their last six completed meetings and has looked the better side this season and we feel they have a better chance of winning this match.