The Thursday offering in the Cricket World Cup looks like being an entertaining contest as the only unbeaten side India put their undefeated record on the line when they go up against a West Indies team who amazingly aren’t done for this tournament yet.
When West Indies agonisingly lost to New Zealand on Saturday they could have been forgiven for thinking their race was run but England’s loss to Australia has kept the Caribbean men alive, however remote their chances of qualifying would seem.
AllSportsBetting Podcast
Kev and Steve are back and they reflect on the state of the tournament so far ahead of West Indies’ final chance at a push for the semi-finals. They also discuss what to expect from India and provide their bets for the match. Listen to their insights by pressing play below.
West Indies
You have to feel a little for West Indies after that loss to New Zealand. They effectively lost an opening batsman in the first over in the field but gave it a right good go and fell agonisingly short to a win which would have catapulted this tournament wide open for them. All is not lost yet though. They have the two lowest ranked sides in the competition after this one so if they can win this there is no reason why they can’t win out and hope it is enough.
If that is going to happen then someone in their middle order needs to take responsibility with the bat. To be fair Shai Hope would normally do that but because of the injury to Lewis he had to go up and open the batting and was undone with the new ball. The positive for West Indies is the best part of their bowling attack returned to form last time out so if they can manage their batting innings better they are a chance.
India
It looked like India were going serenely about their business in this tournament which makes their struggle against Afghanistan last time out very puzzling. It certainly wasn’t a case of taking the minnows lightly, it was just a flat performance but where it came from is anyone’s guess and if it can happen then in the back of everyone’s minds will be when is it going to happen again?
Ultimately, India’s bowlers got them out of the mire combined with the pressure of the opportunity getting to Afghanistan and they remained unbeaten. They could do with a decent performance here just to put that behind them, especially with England to come on Sunday. India will qualify for the semi-finals with a win here but they want a whole lot more than that out of this competition.
Team News
West Indies will be without Andre Russell who has been ruled out of the competition. The fact that Sunil Ambris replaced him suggests that the injury Evin Lewis picked up in the previous game could keep him out of this one.
India are expected to be unchanged even though Bhuvneshwar Kumar is expected to be fit to play. The other change they could think about is to bring Ravi Jadeja into the side but with the number of left-handers in this West Indies side they won’t have to think about that for long.
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Betting
I’ll attack this match with three bets with the first of them coming in the form of the West Indies’ sixes. They have just taken a pretty good New Zealand bowling attack for 13 sixes on this ground with four of their top scoring two runs between them so there is the potential for plenty of big hits here. India and West Indies met in an ODI series in India towards the end of last year and in the first three matches West Indies made 9, 11 and 12 sixes against an attack identical to the one they’ll face here. West Indies had no Gayle, Lewis or Pooran in that series either so the potential for them to crack eight sixes here is pretty big.
Virat Kohli is a run machine, we all know that, and so I’m surprised his runs line is as low as 44.5. He goes into this match off the back of three successive 50s in the tournament and has an insane ODI record against West Indies. He averages 70.76 against them over his ODI career with nine 50s and a further seven tons. Four of those tons have come in his last six knocks against them including three in that series at the back end of last year. He’s in good nick and taking on an opponent he has enjoyed a lot of success against so I expect 45 runs out of him.
Shimron Hetmyer has a couple of 50s in his last two matches and given how well he plays spin he is a big price at 11/2 to top score for West Indies in this one. He made 106 and 94 in that series last year and hit 16 sixes in the series which was an insane effort from someone just starting his ODI career at that stage. Hetmyer was guilty of giving his wicket away against New Zealand so he might feel he has a point to prove here. He can do that by landing the 11/2 bacon here.
Tips
Back West Indies – Over 7.5 sixes for a 4/10 stake at 2.20 with Bet365
WON – Back V.Kohli – Over 44.5 runs for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Coral
Back him here:
Back S.Hetmyer Top West Indies Batsman for a 1/10 stake at 6.50 with Boylesports (note money back offer above)
Back him here:
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