Match: Derbyshire Falcons vs Essex Eagles
When: 21st September 2019
Where: Edgbaston
Series: Vitality T20 Blast 2019
Match Result – Essex Eagles won by 34 runs
Essex Eagles 160/5 (20 overs)
Derbyshire Falcons 126 all out (18.4 overs)
Man of the match – Simon Harmer (Essex)
Top Batsman – 55, Cameron Delport (Essex)
Top Bowler – 4/19, Simon Harmer (Essex)
Total boundaries – 27
Total sixes – 4
Match review
The second semi-final saw the Essex Eagles progress to the final of the 2019 Vitality T20 Blast. This game was an absolute stroll in the park for Essex.
Batting first they set a total of 161 for the win. Looking at the pitch this seemed an average score and looked achievable for the Derbyshire Falcons. The Essex openers started well putting on 78 before the fall of the first wicket. They lost Lawrence and Doeschate in quick succession without adding any runs which seemed to slow them down. The middle-order did okay with the bat but an S/R of 117 was never going to build a big score.
The Falcons came into bat and looked great in the first over, they lost the first wicket 3 balls into the second over when they had already put on 19 runs from 7 balls – an excellent start. It was after this that the struggles started. Six of the team failed to get to double figures and Alex Huges top-scored with just 23. The Falcons offer little resistance and limped out of the tournament with great disappointment.
Pre-match stats
The semi-final of the Vitality Blast T20 takes place at Edgbaston as a part of a T20 Blast doubleheader and this looks set to be a great day of T20 cricket. Essex edge the outright betting at just under evens and Derbyshire are just odds against. Again like the other semi-final between Notts Outlaws vs Worcestershire Rapids was not looking at them to win the match betting markets. We will consider the form to come up with our betting tips for this match.
Derbyshire Falcons vs Essex Eagles Betting Tips
We will start by looking at Derbyshire and their recent form followed by Essex providing you with a tip from each team.
Derbyshire Falcons T20 Blast form
In our preview for Derbyshire’s quarter-final, we’d noticed a trend for lower wickets in their games. Our tip for the last game was an under total match wickets bet that came in comfortably. Derbyshire only lost 3 wickets in a chase of 171 which they managed in 17.1 overs. They took 7 Gloustershre wickets in total giving a total match wicket off 10 well under the 12.5 match line we picked.
Based on the form continuing then the same market is of interest to us again.
Tip 1 – Under 12.5 match wickets
At the time of writing, we are still waiting for this market to be priced up. If it does not get priced up we will do a #Betyourway with Betway and request the odds for us all to back.
The Essex Eagles were also on the lower side with just 9 wickets falling across their semi-final with Lancashire Lightning.
This should be on the lower side in terms of wickets looking at the recent form of the two teams. Hopefully, it will also be a high scoring game!
Essex Eagles T20 Blast form
As mentioned above the Essex Eagles had a lower wicket game against Lancashire in the Semi-Finals this team winning in the last over. With wickets to spare it was more comfortable than it sounded with Essex losing just 4 wickets in the chase. Watching the match it appeared that Essex was always comfortable with the chase and would always go on to win as long as they didn’t lose any quick wickets.
In T20 form you have to go back to the 7th of August for the last time Essex lost a game in this series. That run includes
- 5 wins
- 1 tie
- 4 matches called off for rain (UK Summers lol)
That is a real improvement on their form for 2018 where they only managed 2 wins from 14 in the group stages. From a knock out level perspective, this makes them more of an unknown quantity. There is no real form to look for in either team at the knockout stages and we are interested to see how they both handle the pressure.
This could lead to some opportunities for some live in-play betting which we are big fans of.
Hopefully, we can see some real action on the day – Who doesn’t love a T20 double header!