Northamptonshire will take on Warwickshire in the Tuesday encounter of Central Group in T20 Blast 2020.
Team Preview
Rain interrupted few games in T20 Blast but the tournament is back on the track after having the full games in each group. In Central Group, in-form Northamptonshire will square off against Birmingham Bears on Tuesday who also made a winning start last weekend. Northants are on the top of the group-table with two straight wins. On Saturday, they put a commendable bowling show against Worcestershire and restricted them on 124. Courtesy of Paul Stirling's 49-balls 80, Northants chased down the small target in 15.1 overs. In the next contest, they overcame Somerset in the home game by 9 runs. While batting first, the Hosts put 171 with the help of Rossington’s 31-balls 51 and Cobb’s gritty 42. With an excellent bowling display, they picked Somerset’s 8 wickets on 112 and Van Der Merwe tried to rescue his team but they fell short of 9 runs.
Meanwhile, Birmingham also had a good start as they defeated Glamorgan by 6 wickets at Cardiff. Riding on captain’s lone innings of 72, Glamorgan put 140 on board and Bears chased it down with the collective batting efforts from the top-order. Bears have faced Northants twice in the previous season and both times, they lost the match. It would be a good contest but Northamptonshire has a slight edge on Birmingham due to the home advantage and the current form.
Pitch Report
County Ground, Northampton is a decent T20 ground and it offers the same amount of help to batsmen and bowlers. The new ball will be effective but later the match progresses, batsmen can take advantage. Batting second would be an ideal call after winning the toss as the surface become a batting-friendly track.
Possible XI
Warwickshire
Ed Pollock, Will Rhodes (c), Adam Hose, Ian Bell, Sam Hain, Michael Burgess (wk), Tim Bresnan, Olly Stone, Jeetan Patel, Henry Brookes, Jacob Lintott
Northamptonshire
Richard Levi, Paul Stirling, Joshua Cobb (c), Adam Rossington (wk), Alex Wakely, Saif Zaib, Gareth Berg, Graeme White, Nathan Buck, Ben Sanderson, Brandon Glover
Key Players
Warwickshire
Sam Hain
Last season: 459 runs in 12 innings
Previous outing: 35 (33)
Henry Brookes
Last season: 13 wickets in 10 matches
Previous outing: 27/1
Northamptonshire
Paul Stirling
Previous outings: 26/2 & 80 (49), 15 (12)
Joshua Cobb
Previous outings: 17/1 & 10* (9), 42 (41)
