Southern Brave v Trent Rockets predictions and free cricket betting tips

Free cricket tips, best bets and analysis for Southern Brave v Trent Rockets & Oval Invincibles v Birmingham Phoenix Women in The Hundred eliminators on Friday.

Where to watch

Oval Invincibles Women v Birmingham Phoenix Women
Sky Sports Cricket, Main Event & Mix, 3pm Friday

Southern Brave Men v Trent Rockets Men
Sky Sports Cricket, Main Event & Mix, 6.30pm Friday

Best bets

Southern Brave Men
2pts 10-11 general

Eve Jones top Birmingham Phoenix runscorer
1pt 4-1 bet365

How it works

The inaugural season of The Hundred, English cricket's new 100-ball competition, has reached the playoff stage with eliminators at The Oval in the men's and women's tournaments.

The teams who finished top of the round-robin league stage – Birmingham Phoenix Men and Southern Brave Women – are already through to the finals at Lord's on Saturday.

The teams who finished second and third in the table meet in Thursday's eliminators with the winners advancing to the final.

Match preview

Trent Rockets Men hammered Southern Brave by nine wickets in both teams' opening games of The Hundred but the Brave can avenge that defeat in the playoff eliminator at The Oval.

James Vince's side have bounced back from a slow start with five straight wins at the end of the league stage and a sixth victory on the spin would take them into Saturday's final against Birmingham Phoenix.

Vince and South Africa star Quinton de Kock have done the bulk of the runscoring during the Brave's winning run but both were dismissed early, along with Ireland opener Paul Stirling, in their must-win clash with Oval Invincibles last time out.

It was impressive, then, to see Alex Davies and Colin de Grandhomme, in his final appearance for the Brave, nail the run-chase against an Invincibles attack packed with international experience.

Brave pacemen George Garton, Tymal Mills and Chris Jordan are a formidable unit and unheralded spinner Jake Lintott continued his excellent campaign with 3-14 off 20 balls against the Invincibles.

The Rockets looked like serious contenders in their opening win against the Brave but they have lost their last three matches against top-four teams before clinching their playoff place with a win over out-of-sorts Manchester Originals.

Bookmakers expect a tight contest but the Brave have the edge in terms of confidence and they are worth backing to progress to the final.

In the women's eliminator, Oval Invincibles have home advantage against Birmingham Phoenix and they eased to an eight-wicket win when the teams met at Edgbaston on August 4.

They are favourites to set up a final against Southern Brave but the Phoenix responded well to that defeat, winning their last three matches to surge into the top three.

Phoenix opener Shafali Verma has returned to India, which is a blow to their hopes, but her opening partner Eve Jones is their leading runscorer in The Hundred.

She bagged a duck against the Invincibles in the league game but reached 50 in two of her subsequent three innings and is a big price to top-score in the eliminator.

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