Trent Rockets v Northern Superchargers Prediction: Why the home team shouldn’t be outsiders

Both these sides won their first games and meet at Nottingham on Sunday afternoon, start time 18:00, live on Sky Sports Cricket, eyeing up a move to the top of the table.  

Jamie Pacheco tells us why there's no reason for the Rockets to be sight outsiders in this one and his reasons for siding with the Rockets' Rehan Ahmed with the bat as he takes us through his Trent Rockets vs Northern Superchargers Predictions...   

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Trent Rockets  

An excellent performance first up on Friday night saw them get on the board with a comprehensive win over the Birmingham Phoenix.   

The bowlers all played their part with Akeal Hossein and David Willey each taking a wicket in their first set and proving very economical, Sam Cook even more economical despite going wicketless (and executing a brilliant run out off his own bowling) and the others chipping in, as well, to reduce the Phoenix to a sub-par 122.  

But the real star with the ball was Lockie Ferguson, whose extra pace proved too much for most of Birmingham's men and allowed him to finish with barely-believable figures of 3/20 off his 20.  

In reply, Tom Banton hit a brisk 43 off 29 and was well-supported by Rehan Ahmed- unexpectedly coming in at three – and Max Holden, scoring 25 and 22 respectively. They look a really good team and if Joe Root, guilty of a rare failure on Friday, gets going at the top, they could be hard to stop.  

Northern Superchargers 

They're on the board as well and theirs was also a comprehensive win in the end but that was mainly down to a batting collapse from the Welsh Fire, who were well set to get about 160 after a great start but couldn't get going again once Jonny Bairstow got dismissed. They ended up on 143/9.  

Credit should go to the likes of Imad Wasim, Adil Rashid and Tom Lawes, who were all in the wickets and economical for a good fightback that meant they weren't chasing something huge.  

In the chase, Zak Crawley and Dawid Malan scored the bulk of the runs needed with 67 and 41 before Harry Brook finished the job off.  

The batting looks very strong but they look a bowler light. They also need Mohammad Amir to be better with the new ball.    

Pitch and conditions. 

The average first innings score at Nottingham last year was 148, which is pretty high for this format. 

The highest score was the Rockets' 166/4 against the London Spirit, which included a useful 36 from that man Banton. Root scored 32 off 23 from number four.  

It should be a beautiful sunny day so that 148 average first innings score could well be busted.  

Trent Rockets Top Batsman  

It was disappointing for us that David Willey, flagged up at 9/1 for top Superchargers batting honours, never got a sniff. Banton's 43 would have been tough to beat given they were chasing a low target but if he'd promoted himself to three, Willey may have come close.   

Instead, it was England man Rehan Ahmed who somewhat surprisingly walked to the crease first wicket down, a decision that was vindicated after a quickfire 25 off 16. 

Given the experiment was a success, we'd expect him to carry on batting there, which in a way makes their batting line-up longer with the likes of Marcus Stoinis coming in at 5, Hose at 6 and Willey possible as low as 7.  

There were good reasons for that promotion. He's scored three first-class centuries this season to go with 30 not out, 50 not out, 32 and 43 in four consecutive T20 matches, so he's in rare form. 

The odds-compilers aren't oblivious to his form and possible batting position, which is why he's 5/1, rather than the double figures he was before the first game when he was expected to come in at 6 or 7.    

But that's still a decent price. Root and Banton, both 7/2, are dangerous but one of them getting out early should see Ahmed come to the crease and have every chance.  

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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...