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Yorkshire Bank 40: Bumble, Bob and Paul analyse the groups

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Hampshire begin the defence of their 40-over title on Friday when the Yorkshire Bank 40 bursts into life with the first of four games in as many days on Sky Sports.

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Bob on Group B

Teams: Derbyshire, Essex, Hampshire, Lancashire, Scotland, Surrey, Durham As the current white-ball champions in both forms, it's hard to look past Hampshire - they have bags of experience in the one-day game and know how to win competitions. The ever-reliable Michael Carberry (pictured below) is one to watch in the batting department and Sean Ervine is a very capable all-round cricketer. I also like the look of Surrey. While they will struggle to win Championship matches at the Oval, they'll be pretty potent at the one-day game and will be better drilled than last season, particularly if Graeme Smith can get them off to a good start. Jade Dernbach is a very capable one-day bowler, who knows how to bowl at the Oval even if he's had a bit of a rough ride with England. Derbyshire will be concentrating on staying in division one of the Championship, while I think Essex are a poor side in all forms of the game and Scotland will struggle to be anything but no-hopers. I always tend to under-estimate Durham and pick the opposition to win when we cover their home games only for Phil Mustard to smash a hundred or Chris Rushworth to bowl the opposition out but I don't think they should be as competitive as Hampshire or Surrey. DID YOU KNOW? Hampshire have not beaten Essex away from home in a one-day match since winning by 85 runs at Southend-on-Sea in 2001 - courtesy of an unbeaten 105 by Zimbabwean Neil Johnson.

Bumble on Group C

Teams: Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, Leicestershire, Middlesex, Somerset, Unicorns, Yorkshire I'm going left-field with my prediction. I'm picking two to progress to the semi-finals from the same group - Yorkshire and Gloucestershire. I think that Gloucester could well be the dark horses of the competition, so I'm going to have a punt. The bookies have them at 33-1 at least, so I'll put a little saver on them. I really like Yorkshire - they are such a good team. Their coach, Jason Gillespie, has settled in very quickly and they've got a good, solid captain in Andrew Gale. They've also got some very exciting players. I like Azeem Rafiq - I think he's going to be excellent in one-day cricket - and Moin Ashraf. Then you've got Bairstow, Root, Lyth, Gary Ballance. Richard Pyrah (pictured above) has been around a bit but he is another lad to look out for. When you put Tim Bresnan into that line-up and Jack Brooks, who they've signed from Northants, plus a bit of Liam Plunkett, I think they are well equipped to do well! DID YOU KNOW? Leicestershire's recent record against the West Countrymen is not so good - winning just one of the last nine encounters dating back to 2000. Watch Essex take on Hampshire in the opening match of the Yorkshire Bank 40 this Friday from 4pm on Sky Sports 3 HD.

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