Saturday, February 2, 2013

English County Cricket Division One 2013

Warwickshire have taken plenty of early backing already as they will set out to defend their County Championship Division One title in 2013. It was a fairly comfortable ride to the title for Warwickshire in 2012, taking a fourteen point margin of victory over Somerset. The Edgbaston outfit who have England internationals Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott in their ranks, along with other top performers like Darren Maddy and Boyd Rankin showed some supreme batting all through last season’s County Championship Division 1 season. It was their powerful displays with the bat that saw them lose just one match all season, winning a league high six matches. In the defence of their title, they will start as strong favourites.

Somerset were really the only side that were on the heels of Warwickshire, putting the Bears under pressure last season. Somerset too have a very well rounded squad at their disposal with the likes of Jos Buttler, Craigs Kieswetter and the experience of Marcus Trescothick at their disposal. In terms of bowling, they had the goods to deliver and while having one of the better batting line ups of the nine teams in the division, they still couldn’t get anywhere near Warwickshire. The duels between those two during the 2013 LV County Championship season are going to be immense in the outcome of the title race. Somerset will remain strong in the outright winner market for the 2013 season.

Beyond the two favourites in the County Championship Division 1 2013 betting market, Middlesex, Nottinghamshire and Durham look to be the teams that will be most closely in the hunt for the title. Middlesex fought their way into third place last season and picked up the highest amount of batting bonus points, behind only Warwickshire. So they may not need too much to make the step up to a genuine title challenger, however, they were prone to lapses last season which kept them down.

Nottinghamshire ont the other hand, only lost two matches last season, despite finishing down in fifth. They may well be closer to tipping the balance in terms of leaning towards becoming a title winning side. There could be good value in getting behind Nottinghamshire this term and will take a lot of interest. They will probably hold their value more than other sides in the Championship who will be gunning for glory. Durham are trading around the same mark after finishing as a mid table side as well in last season’s County Championship Division One.

After losing Lancashire and Warwickshire to relegation, making their quests in the top flight this season after gaining promotion, will be Derbyshire and Yorkshire. Bookmakers however, aren’t lining them up with great chances though, pencilling them as firm outside shots in the title race for the 2013 County Championship Division 1 edition. Of the two newcomers, Derbyshire may bring the better bowling attack of the two sides up with them, but Yorkshire have the more explosive batting in their ranks.

No comments:

Post a Comment