Australia stole the opening T20 international against India on Wednesday and when the two sides meet on Friday they will be looking to secure the series from them as well. India head to Melbourne knowing that they have to win this second match to take the spoils to Sydney.
This is just the start of the tour for India and while these three matches carry little or no significance they do at least offer both sides the chance to get the mental upper hand if nothing else, and these fiercely competitive nations will not want to miss that chance.
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Australia
There is no doubt that Australia were massively helped by the Duckworth Lewis Stern calculation in the opening match but they will have many equations go against them in the future so I’m sure they will take it and move on but they should use the game as a reminder that everything is not good in their batting efforts.
What will please them is the way they fought with the ball. Even with the additions to the score it didn’t look like a score that was automatically beyond India when they started out their run chase so the credit must to go Aaron Finch for the way he managed his bowlers and to those stars who held themselves together well, especially in the latter stages when it really mattered.
India
The first thing India will need to go is eradicate any thoughts of the injustice that was done to them in that first game of the series. Although the calculation went against them they were not at their absolute best with the ball and if they are to be competitive and successful on this tour they will not be able to afford to be below par with the ball at any stage.
I fancy India will have needed the run out in Brisbane though. It was a bit of a surprise that they didn’t put this series back a couple of days to get a warm up match in but we also shouldn’t forget that some of their side were playing a series against West Indies less than two weeks ago so the change in conditions was never going to be an easy or automatic one.
Team News
Australia could be unchanged for this match after finally getting over the line in a T20 international. Were they to change then Nathan Coulter-Nile could come back into the side but you wouldn’t think they would drop a spinner on this huge ground.
India could actually pick an extra spinner given the vast size of this ground. Yuzvendra Chahal was absent from the first game but he should come into the side here. Khaleel Ahmed would be the obvious one to miss out.
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Betting
It remains to be seen just how much action we see in this match with the weather in Melbourne earlier in the day bordering on awful but any that we do see I fancy will be devoid of the very big shots. Whether it is raining or not it is hard to see the air not being heavy so the ball isn’t likely to fly very far.
To be fair it is a monster hit to clear the ropes on this ground at the best of times and with both bowling attacks having something to work with and the chance to make the necessary adjustments I don’t see this as a game littered with sixes. The pitch was said to have a sluggish feel to it anyway but all this rain isn’t going to make it any better. I’m happy to ride under 11.5 sixes here.
Tips
VOID – Back Under 11.5 sixes for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with BetVictor
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