T20 Blast predictions and cricket betting tips

Where to watch the T20 Blast

Derbyshire v Lancashire
Sky Sports Cricket, 2pm Saturday

Birmingham Bears v Yorkshire
Sky Sports Cricket, 6pm Saturday

Selected group-stage matches and every knockout game will be shown live on Sky Sports

Best bets

Surrey to win T20 Blast
3pts 8-1 Betfair, Paddy Power

Leicestershire to win T20 Blast
1pt each-way 33-1 Betfair, Paddy Power

Daryl Mitchell to be player of the match in Lancashire v Derbyshire
1pt 10-1 bet365

T20 Blast predictions

The T20 Blast tends to be an open betting heat with 13 different winners in the first 20 years of the English domestic Twenty20 competition.

This summer, however, it may pay to focus on a team who are prominent in the betting and Surrey, the inaugural champions in 2003, are the main selection to end their long wait for a second title.

Surrey fans were already plotting their routes to Finals Day at Edgbaston last season when their side needed just five runs off six balls to beat quarter-final opponents Yorkshire at The Oval.

Yorkshire's Jordan Thompson held his nerve to seal an improbable one-run win but Surrey, who topped the South Group after ten wins from 13 completed matches, can make up for that disappointment this term.

Despite injuries to England bowlers Reece Topley and Tom Curran, Surrey's squad is packed with international talent including captain Chris Jordan, dynamic openers Jason Roy and Will Jacks, and overseas stars Sunil Narine and Sean Abbott.

Off-spinner Jacks provides great balance to the side and Surrey look the main challengers to defending champions Hampshire, who beat Lancashire by one run in an extraordinary final last summer.

James Vince's side had eased past Yorkshire in the semis and thrashed Birmingham Bears by 104 runs in the quarter-final at Edgbaston and the signing of masterful T20 seamer Benny Howell from Gloucestershire gives them another high-class bowling option.

Somerset, who demolished Derbyshire by 191 runs in a remarkable quarter-final at Taunton, are respected after bringing in experienced fast bowlers Matt Henry and Peter Siddle but 33-1 shots Leicestershire are worth an each-way interest.

No team have won more T20 titles than the Foxes' three, although those triumphs came in 2004, 2006 and 2011. They missed out on qualifying for the quarter-finals by a single point last year, winning eight of their 14 North Group fixtures, and have made a promising start to the summer in four-day cricket.

Spinners Rehan Ahmed, who became England's youngest Test cricketer on the tour of Pakistan in December, and Callum Parkinson shared 39 Blast wickets last season while Afghanistan paceman Naveen-ul-Haq took 24 including 5-11 in a win over Worcestershire.

Leicestershire weren't far off making the knockout stage in 2022 and a little more consistency with the bat could see them outrun their massive odds.

The season starts with a double-header at Edgbaston where last season's runners-up Lancashire face Derbyshire before home side Birmingham Bears take on Yorkshire.

Daryl Mitchell marked his Lancashire debut with a Championship century against Somerset, having scored back-to-back ODI tons for New Zealand in Pakistan last month.

Mitchell's unbeaten 72 from 47 balls knocked England out of the 2021 T20 World Cup at the semi-final stage and he looks a big price to be named player of the match in the Blast opener.

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