There is one match on the fourth day of the Cricket World Cup on Sunday and it comes from The Oval where South Africa will be looking to bounce back from their opening match defeat when they take on Bangladesh.
This is the first match of the tournament for Bangladesh and they will be aiming to avoid the trend of Asian teams struggling so far in this competition. A win for the Tigers will set them up for a decent campaign over the next six weeks.
AllSportsBetting Podcast
Kev and Steve are back with the latest edition of the ASB podcast which sees the boys provide a full preview on this match and the bets for it. Click play below to listen.
South Africa
The concerns I had over South Africa heading into the competition did not take long to be played out on the pitch. Their batting looks woefully light and if anyone from their top six struggles throughout the competition you just wonder how they are going to put up the sort of scores needed to be victorious in this event, regardless of whether it is the high scoring tournament we predicted it to be or not.
Two other worries surfaced in the defeat to England first time up though. Their fielding looks like it has dropped several levels and they were beaten so badly that their Net Run Rate is already looking to be an issue. They are either going to need six wins from eight matches to make the knockout stage or they are going to need some big victories between now and the end of the first phase of the event.
Bangladesh
I was extremely buoyant about the chances of Bangladesh in this tournament in the lead up to it and now we will find out whether I was right or wrong. In theory they should be nicely suited to The Oval. They are unlikely to be overcome by the bounce at The Oval which is pretty true which should turn this isn’t something of a battle of the batsmen and Bangladesh are certainly unlikely to be too inconvenienced by that.
With this being the second match here in a few days and recent weather in London being extremely hot there is every chance that we will see a dry surface for this match. You would think that would help Bangladesh significantly, so whether they say it outwardly or not you would expect the Tigers to really fancy their chances of a first success of the competition here.
Team News
Hashim Amla did not train in the run up to this match after the blow he received to the bonce by Jofra Archer on Thursday. If he isn’t passed fit to play then Aiden Markram will move up to open and David Miller will come in. Dale Steyn remains on the sidelines.
Bangladesh look set to leave the choce in whether he is fit to play to Tamim Iqbal himself. Mashrafe Mortaza, Mustafizur Rahman and Shakib-al-Hasan are all over their injury concerns and are expected to play. Liton Das will deputise for Tamim if he is ruled out.
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Betting
This isn’t the easiest match of the tournament to bet on given all the injury doubts around it but I would suggest the biggest loss of the lot would be were Hashim Amla to miss the match. That would make an already light South Africa batting line up even lighter. Tamim would be a loss for Bangladesh but Liton Das has been in good form recently. With that in mind I think the best bet in this match is to side with Bangladesh on the handicaps. They are getting 4.5 wickets and 25.5 runs and with South Africa’s batting looking a struggle and the pitch not going against Bangladesh I’m on the Tigers on that line.
I’m also going to take the performance of Mehidy Hasan of Bangladesh. I think this wicket will suit him nicely and a line of 31.5 is a bit of a joke really. Hasan is becoming a very good spinner for Bangladesh and with the pitch holding up a little bit here on Thursday that should suit him. He is also a handy lower order batsman. He has 16 50s in all forms of cricket and he is a handy fielder as well. Two wickets isn’t beyond him and neither is one and a few runs. This line looks too low to me.
Tips
WON – Back Bangladesh (+4.5wickets/25.5runs) to beat South Africa for a 4/10 stake at 2.20 with Bet365
WON – Back M.Hasan’s Performance – Over 31.5pts for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Bet365
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