Manchester Originals v Birmingham Phoenix Prediction: Tongue and Clarke on our betting radars

This is a big match between two sides fighting for their lives, with the action getting underway at Old Trafford on Sunday, start time 18:00, live on Sky Sports Cricket.  

Jamie Pacheco talks us through his analysis and his tips for the match and picks out his two Best Bets as he takes us through his Manchester Originals vs Birmingham Phoenix Predictions...    

*You can check out all of our Cricket Odds over at betfred.com

Manchester Originals  

The Originals are still alive in terms of Playoff hopes but only on paper, so to speak. They'd need to win their next two matches, hope that both the Rockets and the Superchargers lose their last two and still significantly improved their net run rate. And that's even without mentioning the fact that the Southern Brave are also ahead of them on points. So, no chance, really.  

A really poor effort with the bat at Edgbaston cost them last time, making just 98 despite having the likes of Salt, Buttler, Ravindra and Klassen in their batting line-up. Inexcusable.  

Salt, Buttler and Tongue had good tournaments, but overseas players Klassen and Noor Ahmad didn't and that made a big difference.   

Birmingham Phoenix  

It's not worth going into any depth regarding the Phoenix's current position because it's pretty much identical to that of the Originals: also on eight points and with a similar net run rate. So, it should be pretty obvious what they need to do to make the Playoffs.  

Their 138 on Friday night was about par, but the Welsh Fire (surprisingly) made light of work that to secure what was just their second win of the tournament.  

Jacon Bethell is finally finding some form with the bat, but it came about too late in the day, while their gamble of picking three New Zealand quicks hasn't paid off, so it will be interesting to see what they do next year.  

Pitch and conditions

131, 163 and 171 are the first innings scores at Old Trafford so far with the first of those two scores chased and the last two successfully defended.  

160 is probably the score the side batting first will have in mind on what has been one of the better pitches at the tournament.  

Key Odds

It's 10/11 the pair, which is implied probability of 52.4%.  

No wonder the odds-compilers can't split them. They're on the same points, both won two of their last four and both come here on the back of a defeat last time out.  

That said, the Originals are 3-1 up on the head-to-head so if you're desperate to play this market, maybe that stat will sway you towards the hosts; but it's not one I'll be playing.  

*You can check out all the latest and live Manchester Originals vs Birmingham Phoenix Odds over on betfred.com

Manchester Originals Top Bowler  

Josh Tongue has been a source of profit for us over the last week, winning this market at 10/3 and also dead-heating three ways at 3/1.  One of the men who he dead heated with last time out was 7/1 chance Ravindra, who we also had half a point on.  

And we're going to the well once again with Tongue. And why wouldn't we? He took three wickets in each of his first three matches and even just taking one in his last outing was enough to tie. So, he's on 10 wickets for the competition after just four games and if he'd played six like many others, he'd probably be the competition's leading wicket-taker.  

There are no prizes in this game for…no pun intended…Originality…and we think Tongue can come pretty close again. He's a tad shorter at 14/5 this time, but that's not enough to put us off.  

Oval Invincibles Top Bowler  

Joe Clarke has been nothing if not consistent this tournament, with no single figure scores and a top score of 54. Annoying that because we'd backed him a couple of times before but not when he top-scored with that half-century. For the record his scores have been: 29, 36, 27, 13, 54 and 24.   

So, here's the crucial stat: in 5 of his 6 matches he's passed 18.5 runs, which is the line set for him in this one.  

He looks in good nick and we're backing him at 5/6 to get to 19 runs.  

Jamie Pacheco Cricket Hundred P/L 2025: 

• Points Staked: 19.5 
• Points Returned: 19.08  
• Current P/L: -0.42

Jamie Pacheco predominantly covers Cricket and European Football for us at Betfred Insights. You can check out his Cricket Betting Tips, along with those from the rest of the team, at our Cricket hub page...