We head to Trent Bridge for the penultimate time in this Cricket World Cup on Thursday when two big guns collide as India take on New Zealand in a battle of the two remaining unbeaten sides in the competition.
The winners here will have themselves extremely handily placed in the league table but the fact that defeat isn’t devastating for either after a good start we should see some decent cricket, if the weather plays ball – a big if sadly looking at the forecast.
AllSportsBetting Podcast
After a pair of winners at Taunton on Wednesday, Kev and Steve are back with their bets for the match between India and New Zealand at Trent Bridge. Click play below to listen for the best bets on the game.
India
India have been perfect in this tournament in terms of their record thus far. I had concerns over the shape of their batting in their first win over South Africa but they answered that and some in their second victory against Australia, a win which sounded out that they are genuine challengers for this thing come the end of it, for those who were unsure. There is probably a little more to come from them too which will encourage them moving forward.
One or two bowlers didn’t threaten as they would have liked over the two matches but by and large I’m sure Virat Kohli and his men will be delighted with how this campaign is going for them. Their matches come thick and fast from here on in so having everything going tickety boo will certainly help them. I’m still not completely sure about their batting from 5-8 but if the top four continue to score runs that won’t be an issue for long.
New Zealand
It has been an equally positive beginning to the tournament for New Zealand too. They have won all three of their matches so far. They were completely dominant against Sri Lanka first up, before edging home against Bangladesh in their second game and then they laboured a little to victory against Afghanistan last time out but in all three matches they were chasing low totals where things could only really go wrong for them so I can understand their caution.
One area where there has been absolutely no concern has been their bowling attack. They have shot all three sides they have played out for less than 250 and while their critics will argue they might have faced the three worst teams in the tournament, there was a ruthlessness in which all three were dismissed which you couldn’t fail to admire. That attack has been helped by three top notch fielding performances making the Kiwis a dangerous outfit.
Team News
India will be forced into a change for this match as Shikhar Dhawan has fractured his thumb. We know KL Rahul will go up to open in place of him but we don’t know whether Dinesh Karthik or Vijay Shankar will come in at four. The consensus is the latter is favourite.
New Zealand have no need to make any changes although Tim Southee could come in for Mitchell Santner if New Zealand don’t want to bother with any spin on a small ground which is likely to be fairly damp.
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Betting
Unfortunately the weather forecast isn’t great for this match. There might be a chance of a game later in the day but it looks like we can forget a 50 over contest so this is tough to bet on without knowing the stipulations and things. Given that, I’m largely going to leave the game alone but if we do get a completed game of any kind a couple of men stand out at big prices to be the man of the match.
They are Hardik Pandya and Trent Boult. Pandya showed his batting skills in the previous game and on a tiny Trent Bridge ground he could be elevated to go ballistic and catch the eye while Trent Boult took 12 wickets in the series between these two in New Zealand earlier in the year and with cloud laden skies at Trent Bridge he could easily find a bit of movement with the new ball. If New Zealand do win you would think their bowling will have had another day out so I’ll have a small bet on both men in the hope one of them deliver the match-winning performance of any game we do get.
Tips
VOID – Back T.Boult Man of the Match for a 1/10 stake at 17.00 with 888sport
Back him here:
VOID – Back H.Pandya Man of the Match for a 1/10 stake at 19.00 with Betway
Back him here:
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