Bears vs Durham Prediction: Visitors look overpriced

Birmingham Bears lost their first game of the new T20 Blast campaign to the Notts Outlaws on Friday, despite putting up a total of 226/5, so they will be looking to bounce back in their first home game of the season against Durham on Saturday (16:00, live on Sky Sports Cricket).

Read on for my Bears vs Durham prediction, complete with the latest odds and essential team news.

Bears vs Durham Odds

Bears are the favourites for this clash, currently priced up at 8/11 while Durham are available at 11/10.

Moeen Ali is 10/3 favourite to be the Bears’ top batter, while Alex Lees is 3/1 to lead the way in the batting department for Durham.

Team News

Bears are without a number of their stars, particularly seam bowlers Richard Gleeson, Hassan Ali and Chris Woakes, who are all away either in the Indian Premier League or on international duty.

Australian international Beau Webster is also with his country while Moeen Ali was absent from Friday’s loss against Nottingham.

New Zealand stars Jimmy Neesham and Zak Foulkes could make their Durham debuts but the visitors will be without the likes of Ben Stokes, Matthew Potts and Brydon Carse who are away on England duty.

Durham to win @ 11/10

Bears suffered defeat in their first game of the T20 Blast season and they could be on the receiving end of another loss when they host Durham on Saturday.

The hosts set Notts a total of 226 on Friday, thanks in large part to an unbeaten 92 from Sam Hain, but the Outlaws chased down that total with relative ease, losing just three wickets in the process.

Birmingham’s seam attack is missing a large number of their stars, with Richard Gleeson, Chris Woakes and Hassan Ali all absent. That meant that they could not stem the flow of Notts’ runs and they may have similar issues against Durham.

Alex Lees’ side have made some interesting additions over the winter, most notably New Zealand’s Jimmy Neesham, and they got the better of Birmingham when the two teams met at Edgbaston in this competition last season. They could follow up.

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