Australia have the chance to open up what is a big summer of cricket for them with a series win on Sunday when they take on India in the second ODI of three at the Sydney Cricket Ground knowing that victory will earn them the spoils with a match to play.
India weren’t really at the races in the opening match of the series but they know that if they want to have a chance to win it in a decider they simply have to find a way to win here and level up proceedings by hook or by crook.
Australia
The only thing which would have worried Australia in the opening match really was injuries. Without those it would have been the perfect afternoon and evening and they would be feeling really good about things. It is never ideal to have to change a side that has just performed so well but I guess it is easier to do it after a win of that magnitude rather than a heavy defeat. Whoever comes in will be assigned the role in a team that needs to repeat their performance of the first game.
It was a perfect batting display from the Australians in the opening match of the series. The openers laid the perfect platform and then the rest of the team were able to capitalise on that. They could bat with freedom not just because the platform was there but also because they know they don’t need the top end of an elite score to win with the quality of their bowling attack and that is only going to further be the case the more those bowlers take to the crease.
India
Given that the Test matches come at the end of this tour for India you got the impression that they were always going to build their way into the tour but even so they would have been disappointed with their bowling effort in the first game. Their plans never really got a chance to be operated as Australia got away from them early and in the end the contest turned into competitive match practice to get them up to speed for the remainder of the series.
The positive from that first match for India was the innings of Hardik Pandya. They know that if the top order lay the platform then he can propel the score up to a significant one. That leaves the challenge with the top order. There is plenty of quality there even without Rohit Sharma but having it on paper and having the runs on the board are completely different. Some scoreboard pressure could bring the Indian spinners into the game as well.
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Team News
Australia are likely to be forced into a change with Marcus Stoinis having suffered an injury in the first game. Ashton Agar or Cameron Green would appear the most likely replacements although Moises Henriques is an option on his home ground.
Yuzvendra Chahal left the field during the Indian bowling innings in that opening match but he is expected to be ok to play here. If he isn’t passed fit then Kuldeep Yadav could come into the side for him. Navdeep Saini took a bit of a working over in the first game and could be replaced.
Betting
I suspect the runs line has gone a little bit too distorted in size based on that opening ODI. I don’t expect this one to be as high scoring as that first one was for a couple of reasons, the main one being that this is the same pitch being used just over 36hrs after the last game finished so there won’t have been chance to get much work into it. It is expected to be 40 degrees in Sydney during game time so any juice that remains in the wicket won’t last long and this could get very tough to bat on in the second innings, even if it comes on a bit under lights.
The other reason why I think the scoring will be lower is the bowlers have had the chance to blow the cobwebs away and I expect them to come out with better plans and better execution of those ideas. You can get a runs line up at 578.5 which means if the chasing side wins the team batting first needs to get up to 289. That is a tough ask at the best of times least of all in these conditions. There is a history of 300 scores on this ground but then the second innings are a lot lower. This line is high enough that even with a 300 first innings score there is no guarantee it gets covered. I’m happy to take the under.
Tips
Back Under 578.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Betway
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