The second round of group matches in the Champions Trophy begin on Monday when the first day/night match of the tournament takes place. The match sees Australia and Bangladesh meeting at The Oval with the losers of it most likely to be out of the competition.
Australia took a point from their opening match and will be in a decent position to qualify with a win while Bangladesh lost their first match so they can’t afford to lose this if they are to stay alive.
Australia
You would have to say it was a rusty performance in the first match from Australia. New Zealand took advantage of a shoddy bowling effort and in the end the Australians were grateful that the rain arrived to save them what looked like being a fairly tame defeat. We should expect a much improved performance from them here.
It was a surprise that their bowling performance was so poor in the main against the Kiwis because they are usually ruthless in the field. They never got going with the bat either though and it remains to be seen if that has damaged their confidence in any way. They need to be the positive and aggressive side we know they can be in this one.
Bangladesh
When the tournament began the feelings were that Bangladesh would go well with the bat in the competition but struggle with the ball and that is certainly how it played out in their opening match against England on Thursday. Aside from a nervy and far too sedate first 10 overs they actually batted very impressively.
The concern about with the ball came to fruition in that match though and it has become more than a concern now, it is a full on worry. They have bowlers that they can bring into the side but by and large they are all fairly similar to the ones they employed against England. The wickets are simply too alien to their players.
Team News
Australia were criticised for not playing Adam Zampa in the opening match and he might well come in here with Bangladesh surprisingly not great at playing spin. Pat Cummins could miss out for the Victorian.
Bangladesh have to do something about their bowling attack because they have to win this match. That will have to mean sacrificing a batsman, maybe Imrul Kayes, with either Taskin Ahmed or Mehedi Hasan coming in for him.
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Betting
Both sides need to win this match but I fancy they are both going to be beaten by the weather as the forecast for London on Monday is wretched. Ironically if the match was a day game they might have sneaked something in but with rain forecast for early evening the two sides will need to pray the avoid them.
In terms of betting this isn’t an easy match to bet on and any bets we do have may well be voided but there is one which might be worth chancing. That is the Australia sixes where the line is at 5.5.
There is talk that the match will be played on one of the used wickets of the first two matches but I think whichever pitch is used Australia will hit sixes in this match. They will know that this is a match they need to win and preferably win big as qualification could easily come down to net run rate.
Were they to be asked to bat first they could send the hitters in to pile on the runs and land six sixes before any rain comes. If they don’t get to bat we’ll get our money back but there is too much power in this Australia side to not hit six sixes on these small straight boundaries should they have a full innings.
Tips
VOID – Back Australia – Over 5.5 sixes for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Coral
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