Surrey v Middlesex

Surrey and Middlesex take centre stage on Sky Sports Cricket on Friday night, with their Vitality Blast clash at The Oval pitting two of the biggest clubs in the South Group against each other, but with both currently struggling to meet high expectations.

Surrey have lost their last two matches, both via heavy defeats, and with the Curran brothers and Jason Roy now away with England, they need others to step up to the plate. Similarly, Middlesex have only won once all season and don’t look any great shakes.

With home advantage, I’d still favour Surrey despite their recent downturn in fortunes, but the submarkets look the best route to a bet and I’m keen to have BEN GEDDES onside in some way.

Will Jacks is Surrey’s leading runscorer (194) in the tournament so far and his typically brisk 65 against Somerset on Wednesday confirms he remains in good form, while Laurie Evans has been a brilliant T20 performer over the years and has shown enough this season to suggest he isn’t a spent force, for all patently nowhere near as prolific since leaving Sussex.

Without Roy and Sam Curran, the top Surrey batsman market looks there for the taking, with Jacks and the returning Ollie Pope the obvious choices. However, both dominate the top of the betting and Geddes looks worth chancing.

The 19-year-old doesn’t have many miles on the clock, but what he lacks in experience he appears to make up for in talent and his promising 28 against a strong Essex attack on his First XI debut was a sign of big things to come.

Leicestershire v Yorkshire

Elsewhere on Friday, the clash between Worcestershire and Durham promises much in a match between two sides who ought to have genuine qualification aspirations, for all the former have gone off the boil more recently and the latter were beaten by Northamptonshire on Wednesday.

Durham will go off deserved favourites for this one and I’ll look elsewhere for a bet, with LEICESTERSHIRE worth an interest at home to Yorkshire at anything around the 13/8 mark.

The North Group table suggests Yorkshire will be very hard to beat, but following a sluggish start, Leicestershire have really picked up, winning their last two in handsome style as the likes of Scott Steel and Colin Ackerman have found some form with the bat.

The bowling is serviceable, and Naveen-ul-Haq and Callum Parkinson are a good deal better than that, while in Josh Inglis, Leicestershire have a high-class wicketkeeper-batsman who will surely be earning international honours very soon.