Kent and Warwickshire will square off in the fourth quarter-final of the T20 Blast 2021, at St Lawrence Ground, Canterbury. Kent have been the team to beat this season: they have won nine matches and lost only four, and finished at the top of the South Group. Warwickshire, meanwhile, finished fourth in the North Group and qualified on net run rate.
Kent will head into this contest off a four-wicket loss to Sussex, though they were without a string of prominent players. Daniel Bell-Drummond, their highest run-getter, will return to the squad, and he will open the innings alongside Zak Crawley.
While Crawley has been dropped from England's Test side, he is in sublime form in white-ball cricket. For Kent, he has amassed 326 runs at a strike rate of over 150.
Joe Denly, Ollie Robinson and Calum Macleod form the crux of the middle-order, while Fred Klassen and Matthew Milnes will lead the pace attack. They have claimed 14 wickets each. Klassen's best performance came in the opening clash against Hampshire, where he picked a four-for.
Warwickshire, on the other hand, will be boosted by arrival of some high-profile names. Chris Woakes, Jake Lintott, Danny Briggs, and Sam Hain are all available for the game. However, they will miss Carlos Brathwaite and Kyle Mayers, both of whom have left for the Caribbean.
Brathwaite was their leading wicket-taker of the tournament. The likes of Craig Miles, Danny Briggs and Jake Lintott need to step up. The team is heavily reliant on Hain and Will Rhodes in batting.
Betway Fantasy Tip
- Briggs and Lintott have picked up 15 wickets each. Among bowlers, pick both of them, and Klassen from Kent.
- Hain has scored 393 runs for Warwickshire this season. He, along with Rhodes, should be the two batters from Warwickshire.
- Expect a high-scoring clash. So try to fill your team with batsmen.
Probable XIs
Kent: Daniel Bell-Drummond (c), Joe Denly, Zak Crawley, Heino Kuhn, Calum MacLeod, Jordan Cox (wk), Matthew Milnes, Fred Klaassen, Marcus Oriordan, Safyaan Sharif, Adam Milne
Warwickshire: Adam Hose, Robert Yates, Ed Pollock, Sam Hain, Will Rhodes (c), Chris Benjamin, Michael Burgess (wk), Chris Woakes, Danny Briggs, Craig Miles, Jake Lintott
Prediction:
Kent should win this and advance to the semi-final.