County Ground Hove,England The fastest version of cricket will resume in england on Wednesday when the first quarter final of England's popular Natwest West T20 Blast will be played. On Hove cricket ground Sussex Sharks will entertain Northamptonshire Steelbacks, which is their home quarter-final.Sussex finished runner-up in south group while Northampton was got third place in north group.Both the teams are not so familiar with each other in this format as it will only be the second time that two teams will be facing each other in T20 cricket.The last time when these two met in 2009 was a close match in which the Sharks won by seven wickets with just two balls to spare.
Both the team were not that great in group stages but managed to hold on in later stages of tournament to book place in Quarter finals.Northampton had a very bad start this year in T20 blast where they lost their three first matches but did very well to come in the play-offs.Sussex also failed to perform as a whole team unit but with the help of skipper Luke Wright who was Stand out Performer throughout the tournament they managed to finished second.He top scored for his team with 564 runs which includes a whopping tally of 29 sixes.
Team News-
Sussex has announced their 13 man squad from which team will be selected for quarter finals.The big news is return of Legend Mahela Jayawardene in the squad who played for sharks in opening stages of tournament. All rounder Chris Jordan is also available for selection on Wednesday who was out due to see injury.
Sussex 13 man squad-
GJ Bailey,WAT Beer,C Cachopa (wk),CJ Liddle,DPMD Jayawardena,CJ Jordan,MW Machan,TS Mills,CD Nash,SA Piolet,OE Robinson,LJ Wright (c),MH Yard.
Northants are unlikely to make any major changes with Skipper Alex Wakely is happy with the way team has performed consistently in all formats.
Northants squad-J Cobb,R Levi,DJ Willey,AG Wakely,BM Duckett,RI Newton,SP Crook,S Afridi,AM Rossington,R Keogh,RK Kleinveldt,GG White,OP Stone,M Azharullah.
PREDICTION- On paper Sussex is much better side but they are more dependent on luke Wright.Jayawardene and Bailey are better One day format player but T20 they are not best on other hand nothants are in better form and have dangerous player like Levi and Afridi who are T20 specialist. So its worth backing them here.
Northamptonshire To Win!!
Both the team were not that great in group stages but managed to hold on in later stages of tournament to book place in Quarter finals.Northampton had a very bad start this year in T20 blast where they lost their three first matches but did very well to come in the play-offs.Sussex also failed to perform as a whole team unit but with the help of skipper Luke Wright who was Stand out Performer throughout the tournament they managed to finished second.He top scored for his team with 564 runs which includes a whopping tally of 29 sixes.
Team News-
Sussex has announced their 13 man squad from which team will be selected for quarter finals.The big news is return of Legend Mahela Jayawardene in the squad who played for sharks in opening stages of tournament. All rounder Chris Jordan is also available for selection on Wednesday who was out due to see injury.
Sussex 13 man squad-
GJ Bailey,WAT Beer,C Cachopa (wk),CJ Liddle,DPMD Jayawardena,CJ Jordan,MW Machan,TS Mills,CD Nash,SA Piolet,OE Robinson,LJ Wright (c),MH Yard.
Northants are unlikely to make any major changes with Skipper Alex Wakely is happy with the way team has performed consistently in all formats.
Northants squad-J Cobb,R Levi,DJ Willey,AG Wakely,BM Duckett,RI Newton,SP Crook,S Afridi,AM Rossington,R Keogh,RK Kleinveldt,GG White,OP Stone,M Azharullah.
PREDICTION- On paper Sussex is much better side but they are more dependent on luke Wright.Jayawardene and Bailey are better One day format player but T20 they are not best on other hand nothants are in better form and have dangerous player like Levi and Afridi who are T20 specialist. So its worth backing them here.
