We head back to Barbados for the opening match of the two in the T20 World Cup on Thursday when Group 1 of the Super Eights gets underway with a clash between Afghanistan and the tournament favourites India.
Both sides have shown some good stuff over the course of this tournament so far but they will both be aware that they have to start again in this group and getting off to a winning start makes qualifying for the semi-finals much easier.
Afghanistan
Afghanistan were looking like one of the best teams in the tournament in their initial group and having won their opening three matches very emphatically they had already secured their spot in the Super Eights. They had their wings clipped in the last game though when they come up a long way short against West Indies and it will be interesting to see what damage that has done to their confidence, if any. They need to play attacking cricket here you fancy.
While Afghanistan were looking really good in that first group, there was always the concern that their opening pair had done too much of the batting and whether they would be able to deliver the goods should one or both of them fail. One of them did fail against West Indies and the innings never really got going as a result so that is something that needs to be rectified. You would imagine their bowling is going to continue to be strong as wickets tire though.
India
India will be pretty happy with their progress in the tournament so far. They won the three matches that they were able to play in their first group and didn’t really suffer any dramas and then the washout in their last game probably just gave them enough time to regroup and take stock of where they are and how they are going to approach this second group as they go about finally getting their hands back on the trophy they haven’t lifted since 2007.
One thing India will have to quickly come to terms with is the different pitches in the Caribbean. They have been based in New York for the matches that they have played so far and that has been the toughest track to bat on. These ones are much better for batting so they are going to need their power players to come to the fore. The bowling went well in New York but we will find out just how well they are going now that the assistance in the pitches isn’t quite as strong.
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Team News
Afghanistan might consider making a change to their batting after failing away a little too tamely against West Indies but bringing someone who hasn’t had much cricket into the side might be detrimental so expect an unchanged side.
After three wins from three completed matches in the tournament there is no need for India to change anything in their setup unless they want to bring another spinner into the side which would probably see Kuldeep Yadav included.
Betting
The scores weren’t always the highest in the first leg of the tournament in Barbados but we haven’t had a match here for 12 days and now we get three in three before the final next weekend so there are two things I’m going to take from that. The first is that this particular pitch should play well given there has been no cricket here in almost two weeks. The other is that you would imagine the final will be played in the middle of the square so this pitch might be to one side of the block.
That could bring a short boundary into play, although we saw when England played Australia here that none of the boundaries are that big anyway and if the wind is blowing that would be even more the case. These two sides played three T20 matches against each other at the beginning of the year and they were all fairly high scoring so Afghanistan will know they can go toe-to-toe with this India side. I see no reason why this won’t be slightly higher scoring than the lines suggest so I like over 11.5 sixes here.
Tips
Back Over 11.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Boylesports
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