Vitality T20 Blast betting preview by Richard Mann: Yorkshire v Birmingham
Yorkshire entertain Birmingham in front of the Sky cameras on Friday night and Richard Mann is expecting the cream to rise to the top at Headingley.
Recommended bets: T20 Blast - Yorkshire v Birmingham
3pts Birmingham to beat Yorkshire at 11/8
2pts Kane Williamson to be Top Yorkshire Batsman at 3/1
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Yorkshire's array of international stars were humbled by Lancashire at Old Trafford in a thrilling exhibition of T20 cricket last Friday but will be pleased by the way they turned the tables on their close rivals in the County Championship this week.
The likes of Adam Lyth and skipper Steven Patterson enjoyed good games and the former played a key role in sparking Yorkshire's attempt at chasing down Lancashire's mammoth 176 in 14 overs in the aforementioned T20 Blast clash.
Lyth plundered 60 from only 26 balls while his hard-fought 70 in the subsequent four-day victory confirms he remains in good form.
Expect him to play a lead role again, especially in the form of Yorkshire's aggressor, but that might leave the door open for New Zealand captain Kane Williamson to take top honours in the top Yorkshire runscorer market.
Williamson was shunted down the order in last week's run chase but that looked an error on Yorkshire's part and they won't make the same mistake this time, especially with Joe Root unavailable.
Williamson is a fabulous player, one of the world's best, and his Test and ODI records make for impressive reading.
If there was a chink in his armour, one might have previously argued that he had yet to nail the shortest form of the game, but his exploits in this year's edition of the IPL confirmed him a top-class all-form batsman.
Williamson thrived for Sunrisers Hyderabad, taking over the captaincy from the disgraced David Warner and finishing as the tournament's leading runscorer with his 735 runs coming at a staggering average of 52.50.
Even more impressive was that Williamson's strike-rate was 142.44, a rate of scoring that he might not have been able to achieve previously and clear evidence of how the Kiwi has developed his game.
With Williamson expected to sit alongside Lyth and David Willey in Yorkshire's top three - the latter pair both aggressive players in nature - Williamson might be well placed to take fewer risks than his colleagues and don't be surprised if his instructions are to bat through the innings while his teammates look to attack from the off.
While Lyth and Willey are both very good players, neither can claim to be in the same league as Williamson, nor can Garry Ballance or Harry Brook, and as such, it's surprising to see Williamson available at 3/1 for top Yorkshire batting honours.
With the likes of Willey, Liam Plunkett, Tim Bresnan and Adil Rashid potentially forming a potent bowling attack to compliment their powerful batting line up, Yorkshire will appeal to many at 4/6 with home advantage on their side.
However, Thursday proved to be a testing one for the White Rose county with news that Plunkett will play his cricket at Surrey next season and Rashid, despite being unavailable in red-ball cricket for Yorkshire, has been selected by England for the first Test match against India next week.
Hardly ideal preparation for a big game and given such news, don't be surprised if one, or even both, of Plunkett and Rashid don't feature in this game.
Furthermore, Birmingham are a dangerous outfit with some high-class operators in their own ranks and they played out a thrilling tie with Northants at the weekend.
Ian Bell stroked a magnificent hundred in that game and although the Bears have yet to find the sort of form that saw them make the Final of this competition last year, they don't look a million miles away from their best.
Any team housing the likes of Colin de Grandhomme, Jeetan Patel and Grant Elliott are always to be feared and though their bowling comes with a few risks, I can't resist them at 11/8 given the unhelpful preparation Yorkshire have had to make do with.
Another sub-plot to this game is the potential return to Headingley of Will Rhodes.
The former England U19 captain left Yorkshire at the end of last season having fallen out of favour but has started his Warwickshire career in impressive fashion.
Rhodes hit a sublime 118 in the County Championship game at Lord's this week and although not selected in the last few rounds of this competition, the Stamford Bridge left-hander has demonstrated his short-form skills for Warwickshire 2's in the last few weeks.
The 23-year-old has made scores of 43, 66 and 52 not out in their most recent T20 matches and will be desperate to do well if getting the nod in front of a packed Headingley crowd on Friday night.
Posted at 1800 BST on 26/07/18