West Indies and England play the middle match of their three game ODI series on Saturday when the two sides are back in Antigua barely 36 hours after the opening game concluded with the home side having their first chance to seal the series.
England know that if they are to get anything out of this series they have to win this match to force a deciding game. If they lose this one then they will be unable to win a series which they would have fancied winning when they arrived.
West Indies
When you consider that West Indies were in Sri Lanka as recently as last weekend, to perform like they did in the opening game of the series will have really pleased them. There wasn’t a moment in the match where they weren’t on top and unlike some teams who could be considered underprepared, they never relinquished the advantage and in the end ran out very comfortable winners. They will be looking for the same again here.
It is hard to see where West Indies could really improve on that opening effort. The only player who was heavily involved who looked scratchy was Brandon King but he rode the tough times and was starting to flourish when he got out. There still looked like there was a lot more to come with the bat for West Indies in that opening game and you sense that if the pitch plays trickier that will only suit them with their skillset right now.
England
England went into this series looking like they were undermanned and that is exactly how it played out in that opening game. They loaded their team with a bunch of T20 stars and then wondered why they couldn’t pace a 50 over innings. It wasn’t as though England didn’t get starts with the bat. Their top six all got themselves in but none of them wanted to take responsibility to bat a lengthy innings and get them up to something they could defend.
It is hard to judge the bowling on the first game because the rain came at half time and didn’t help matters and then it came again midway through the innings to make the run chase a mere formality but the one thing that we can say about the bowling is it needs a lot more runs than it was given to be able to defend. The batters either need one of the openers to catch fire and get West Indies behind the game or someone inexperienced in the middle order is going to need to make a huge name for themselves.
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Team News
You wouldn’t think that West Indies would be rushing to change their side but they do have the likes of Romario Shepherd, Hayden Walsh and Shamar Joseph waiting in the wings. They might need to wait until they get to Barbados to get a game.
Such is the inexperience that England have brought to this series in terms of batters they only have a debutant in Michael Pepper waiting to come in so it is unlikely the batting changes but Jofra Archer isn’t likely to play twice in 36 hours so one of Reece Topley or Saqib Mahmood will come in for him. Rehan Ahmed might be a better option than Jamie Overton.
Betting
I don’t see why West Indies aren’t clear favourites to win this match. England have nobody with any significant experience with the bat to bring into their ranks and we all know that as pitches get tougher their overall output with the bat diminishes in the main. The other thing to add with England is should Jofra Archer not go again, and the likelihood is that he won’t given the short turnaround, that England will be weaker with the ball whoever comes in for him.
West Indies have a lot more to give from the first game and the beauty of them is they have some good players to come in should they feel the need to change things up. They have batters who know how to score big in this format of the game and quite a few of them and they are all in key positions as well. Their bowlers generally know that if they target the stumps and don’t give any width then England will generally oblige with big shots which a lot of the time are unnecessary so at odds against again I can’t ignore West Indies to wrap up the series here.
Tips
Back West Indies to win 2nd ODI for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Betfred
