A big six weeks or so of limited overs cricket for West Indies begins on Saturday when they play host to Ireland in the first of three ODI matches at Sabina Park in Jamaica, as qualifying for the next World Cup continues around the world.
West Indies will be expected to win this match and the series and do it well but Ireland have some special memories of playing in this part of the world and will be looking to call upon that history to inspire them to lay down a challenge here.
West Indies
After a disappointing effort in the T20 World Cup at the back end of last year, the next few weeks are going to be big for West Indies. Later in the month they will look towards starting their preparation for the T20 World Cup in Australia later this year but for now their attention is on strengthening their position to qualify for the 50 over World Cup next year. In theory these matches are warm up games for when England arrive on their shores but West Indies aren’t in a position to take anyone lightly.
We know all about the power West Indies have with the bat but the big question here will be whether they have the players who can play the long innings which is required in this format of the game. All eyes will then be on their bowlers because if they can be found wanting somewhere then it is with the ball. In home conditions they can have no excuse in that regard though so we’re looking for a complete performance from the Caribbean men here.
Ireland
Ireland have had their preparations for this series affected by Covid. It cut short the warm up leg of the tour against the USA, where in the two matches that were able to be played they hardly covered themselves in glory, and now Covid has got into the Ireland camp and has impacted the availability of players for the early part of this series and has hampered the amount of practice they have been able to get under their belts ahead of this match.
If there is one thing we have seen around the cricket world recently it is the impact the uncertainty of Covid can play so it won’t be easy for Ireland to put all that behind them and concentrate on the task ahead. The Irish wouldn’t have been favourites for this match anyway without all that is going on. If they can bowl well though they usually bat quite deep so a decent bowling effort could give them a chance of an unlikely win.
Special Offer
Sign up for a Boylesports account to get up to £25 in free bets! Perfect offer for this series! Click the image below for this great offer! New accounts only. 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Team News
This is a fairly new breed of West Indies for this series. There are no Andre Russell, Evin Lewis, Shimron Hetmyer or the likes of Chris Gayle and Sunil Narine. The likes of Odean Smith, Romario Shepherd and Shamarh Brooks will get their chance to shine.
We don’t know the whole makeup of the Ireland squad for this match because of their Covid issues but we do know that Paul Stirling doesn’t come out of quarantine until the day after this game so he won’t be involved in the opening ODI.
Betting
It is hard to bet on the match without knowing the exact identity of the Ireland side but I would be very surprised if Curtis Campher isn’t involved for the tourists because he is one of the more promising all-rounders in their travelling party and who can win matches for them with the bat and the ball. He hasn’t been in the best of touch in the T20 matches recently in terms of the bat but that is a volatile format. He did take four wickets in a T20 against USA though which is encouraging.
Campher has four 50s in in just eight ODI innings so this is a format he enjoys batting in and he should enjoy batting on this Sabina Park deck which is unlikely to have too many demons in it. He’ll bowl the majority of his overs and he bowls that tight line which West Indies’ power players won’t enjoy as they’ll have to take risks to get him away. He’s also likely to be in the game in the field as well so when you put it all together I think he can cover a performance line of 34.5pts.
Tips
Back C.Campher’s Performance – Over 34.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2022
