Cricket betting tips: T20 Blast Yorkshire v Lancashire preview and best bets

Yorkshire and Lancashire renew hostilities in the first Roses instalment of the year on Thursday evening, with Headingley hosting one of the biggest clashes in the T20 Blast.

The two sides met three times in this competition last year, with Lancashire winning twice, including in the semi-finals, after the first meeting ended in a thrilling tie at Old Trafford.

Lancashire will rightly start favourites for this renewal having looked a powerful outfit in their four games so far this term, winning three, while Yorkshire lost each of their first three matches before finally breaking their duck against Nottinghamshire on Tuesday.

Nevertheless, a Derby match can often see teams and individuals rise to the occasion and I’m hoping that’s the case on Thursday, with Yorkshire backed to play their part in a high-scoring affair.

For a long time, Leeds was associated with seam and swing bowling, but that’s rarely the case in white-ball cricket nowadays and the pitch at Headingley is generally very flat and good for batting, with the boundaries far from intimidating, either.

In last year’s Blast, there were seven scores of 200 or more made at Headingley from only seven games, and the high-scoring trend continued in The Hundred later in the summer. In the one Blast fixture player here so far this season, Durham scored 217-3 batting first before Yorkshire replied with 189-7 despite suffering a collapse in their middle order.

With a dry forecast, big runs should be the order of the day, particularly for Lancashire, given Daryl Mitchell, Liam Livingstone and Colin de Grandhomme feature in a middle order that is packed full of power. Jos Buttler makes his return from the IPL, putting the finishes touches to a formidable top six.

It’s fair to say Yorkshire’s bowling hasn’t pulled up any trees so far this year and with that in mind, betting Lancashire to mount a big first innings total should they bat first looks the obvious play. This is a fine batting line-up, and I can’t believe 180 won’t be breached comfortably.

Yorkshire’s own batting is a little harder to have complete confidence in, but Dawid Malan remains one of the best T20 batsmen in the world and he looked in fine touch when compiling a brilliant, match-winning 95 not out from 56 balls against Nottinghamshire.

Adam Lyth’s form hasn’t been there yet, but he was outstanding in this competition and The Hundred last year, as was new recruit Shan Masood. When you throw David Wiese into the mix, Yorkshire have the look of a side capable of making big runs, on paper at least.

Lancashire have had two very good games and two less-impressive games with the ball so far, though they have relied quite heavily on spin and that won’t cut it at Headingley where spinners have generally struggled badly in white-ball cricket.

As such, I’m hopeful Yorkshire’s batsmen can rise to the challenge at home, in conditions that should be excellent for batting, and thus backing both teams to go big makes sense.

With both teams to score markets in short supply at the time of writing, we might have to wait nearer the start time to make our move, but look out for both to teams to score 180 or above. Both teams to score 190, 200, and even 210, is definitely in play on this ground.

Cricket tips: T20 Blast – Yorkshire v Lancashire

No recommended bets

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