LA Knight Riders v Washington Freedom MLC Tips: More woe for Knight Riders

• Freedom should be favourites

• Morrisville pitch tricky

• Phillips could star

LA Knight Riders v Washington Freedom
Thursday 20 July, 22:30
TV: Live on BT Sport

LA Knight Riders team news

Knights Riders have lost each of their three matches and qualification looks beyond them. Their squad balance is poor and they have only one overseas reserve to swap in and out. Jason Roy replaced Martin Guptill last time.

Andre Russell also has an injury. He couldn't complete his allocation in defeat by Unicorns last time. That could leave them with only five bowling options.

Possible XI: Roy, Chand, Kumar, Rossouw, Malhotra, Russell, Narine, Dry, Zampa, Khan, Johnson

Washington Freedom team news

Freedom have only played twice, losing to Seattle and beating Texas. Unlike Knight Riders they have good balance, particularly the clutch of top-class performers like Glenn Phillips, Marco Jansen, Akeal Hosein and Anrich Nortje. That covers all bases.

Moises Henriques has also been turning his arm over so they are not short of bowling options.

Possible XI: Short, Gous, Mukhtar, Phillips, Henriques, Pienaar, Jansen, Akeal, Nortje, Netravalkar

Morrisville pitch report

The tournament has moved from Dallas to Morrisville and it is fair to expect another wicket which keeps the bowlers keen. There's no evidence of runfests from the 2022 Minor League matches at this ground.

Of the eight games played only three saw first-innings scores of 160 or more. Bear that in mind for the par line. Batting first may be harder with three of the eight defended.

LA Knight Riders v Washington Freedom team news

Bonkers early show for this one with Knight Riders 1.814/5 favourites and Freedom 2.1011/10. We felt sure it would be the other way round and the pricing is, inexplicably, wrong.

They always say unless you know why a price is wrong then maybe it isn't. But Freedom could well prove to be one of the best teams in this league and we expect a comfortable win. Perhaps the odds are influenced by the league table which is skewed by Freedom's two matches.

LA Knight Riders v Washington player bets

Roy and Matthew Short have been boosted to 3/14.00 for top team bat respectively by Sportsbook. We're keen on the 7/24.50 for Phillips to cop for Freedom, however. We also note a short of under 19.5 runs for LA's Unmukt Chand. He could struggle against the likes of Nortje and Jansen.