The T20 World Cup continues with a triple header of action on Sunday and it all begins with the opening match of the tournament at The Gabba in Brisbane as Bangladesh take on Zimbabwe in Group 2 of the Super 12s.
Bangladesh have to win this to stay really relevant in the race for the semi-finals but should Zimbabwe win this they could quickly attain pole position in that battle so this is a big game for both teams.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh have a win and a defeat on their record in this tournament. The win didn’t have a huge amount of convincing play about it and the defeat was about as emphatic as you’re going to get. Both matches told a bit of a story in that this is a team who don’t win many T20 matches and when they do they kind of fall over the line while when they get outplayed they are blasted off the pitch and they really need to battle harder in matches than that.
The big problems for Bangladesh in this format of the game is a lot of their experienced, established stars have given up with T20 international cricket and the other issue they have is they are paying the price for producing terrible wickets at home, which might suit their bowlers and to a lesser extent their batters, but when they go away from home things are completely alien to them and they struggle to cope.
Zimbabwe
You would imagine that Zimbabwe will be heading into this match feeling really good about things after that incredible win over Pakistan last time out. At that stage they were probably playing to claim a big scalp before they depart the competition but now they are a win away from being serious runners in the race for the semi-finals. They need to be careful of over confidence though. They had an emotional win in the first phase and then thought they were invincible in the next match only to find out that wasn’t the case.
You would hope from a Zimbabwe point of view that the experience they had a week ago will stand them in good stead as they look to keep their feet on the ground here. If they do keep themselves grounded you would imagine they have every chance here because their seamers have been doing the business in the powerplay throughout the tournament and they have enough in their batting to back up the efforts of those bowlers.
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Team News
Given the struggles they had with the bat in the previous match the obvious thing for Bangladesh would be to bring Yasir Ali back in but that would leave them light with the ball so it will be interesting to see how they balance their side.
Zimbabwe are unlikely to change the team which so famously beat Pakistan a few days ago which means that Tendai Chatara is going to have to continue to watch on after his replacement Brad Evans bowled the decisive over in that win.
Betting
I’ll go with three bets for this opening match of the day. The first of those is on a Zimbabwe win which I think might well be in their own hands. By that I mean if they stay grounded and don’t get carried away with the position they have created for themselves then they should be in control of their own destiny here. These two met in a T20 series in Zimbabwe a few months ago and Zimbabwe won that and although Bangladesh beat the Netherlands earlier in this tournament there is no way Zimbabwe aren’t a good upgrade on the Netherlands and the Dutch only went down by nine runs. Bangladesh look a really ordinary T20 side while I think Zimbabwe are one on the up. Zimbabwe win this for me.
The other main bet I like comes in the form of a performance bet for Sikandar Raza. You could argue that Zimbabwe can’t win this if Raza doesn’t go well so I’m killing myself twice but I’m not convinced that is the case. The one thing I am convinced of is that Raza has been the player of the tournament so far. In five matches he has 145 runs and eight wickets and he has covered a 33.5 performance line in all four completed games Zimbabwe have had. Furthermore, in the series these two played earlier in the year, Raza made 65 and 62* in the first two games so he can go well against this attack. He is a livewire with the ball and in the field as well and this performance looks right within his wheelhouse.
I’ll also have a small play on Afif Hossain to top score for Bangladesh. He has already done that once in this tournament when he top scored against the Netherlands in the opener for his side. That bodes well because he has scored well against this Zimbabwe attack in the past. In seven innings against Zimbabwe in T20 cricket he has scores of 52, 24, 30* and 39*, the latter two earlier this year, so he knows he can score against this side. There isn’t really a Bangladesh batter in great form with the exception of Shakib, who has so much on his plate he can’t deliver all the time, so I think Hossain has every chance of top scoring here.
Tips
Back Zimbabwe to beat Bangladesh for a 3/10 stake at 2.38 with William Hill
Back them here:
Back S.Raza’s Performance – Over 33.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back A.Hossain Top Bangladesh Batter for a 1/10 stake at 8.50 with Betfair
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