Durham vs Leicestershire Prediction: Foxes can stay in knockouts hunt with win

Durham and Leicestershire meet in a crunch Vitality Blast clash at the Riverside in Chester-le-Street on Tuesday (18:30 BST, Sky Sports Main Event) with knockout stage places still up for grabs.

A win for Durham cements their place in the top four of the North Group while the Foxes know defeat will be calamitous for their chances of squeezing into the end-of-season knockouts.

Team News

Durham will be considering a tweak or two after suffering back-to-back defeats at the hands of Nottinghamshire and Lancashire.

David Bedingham returned from duties with South Africa for the last game against the Lightning and can expect to remain at No.3.

Alfonso Thomas' Foxes had won two in a row prior to defeat by Worcestershire on Sunday. Leicestershire may bring paceman Matt Salisbury back into the squad.

Durham vs Leicestershire Odds

Durham are third in the North Group and have won one more game than sixth-placed Leicestershire.

The hosts, therefore, get the 8/11 quote with Leicestershire available at 11/10.

Cricket Odds

Leicestershire to win @ 11/10

The first game of the final week of league-stage action from this summer's Vitality Blast sees Durham host Leicestershire knowing victory will send them into September's quarter-finals.

They do, however, go into the game on the back of two straight losses and have dropped from first to third.

And they don't have a particularly good record against the Foxes, who are sixth in the standings and, because of a poor net run rate, effectively need to win both their last two matches and hope that's enough to see them into the knockouts for the first time since 2020.

Leicestershire beat Durham by six runs in a close call at Grace Road last month and that made it five wins in the last six meetings between these counties for the Foxes.

Given that they had won two in a row prior to Sunday's disappointing loss to Worcestershire where they got the runs - 173-6 - but bowled poorly, the Foxes can be expected to tighten up with the ball and land odds of 11/10.

Sol Budinger Over 18.5 Total Runs @ 5/6

Leicestershire's batters have been in decent enough form of late, led from the front by opener Sol Budinger.

The 25-year-old left-hander is the Foxes' top scorer in this competition with 344 runs at a strike rate in excess of 160 and featuring a trio of half centuries.

Since scoring 118 in a County Championship game against Glamorgan three weeks ago, Budinger has played a quartet of T20 matches for Leicestershire and scored 51, 56, 40 and 15.

Budinger's runs at the Riverside have been set at 18.5, a total which his stats suggest he clears handily.

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