The first of five ODIs between England and West Indies takes place in Manchester on Tuesday when the two sides do battle in a day-night match at Old Trafford. Sometimes the first match in a five game series can be a case of both sides feeling their way into things but that won’t be the case here.
West Indies must hit the ground running in this series if they are going to force their way back into the top eight in the ICC ODI rankings to automatically qualify for the 2019 World Cup. England will be out to end a topsy-turvy summer with a bang.
England
Although they were missing a couple of key players England will know they will need to improve on what they showed in the T20 on Saturday. That improvement is especially needed in the early stages of their bowling effort where West Indies got away from them in that match. If they can tighten up their lines that will certainly help.
They will also need to deliver the goods in the middle order at times in this series. West Indies strength probably lies with the new ball so in these autumnal conditions it is clear the whole batting line up will get their chance at some point. If England can win this match West Indies might lose motivation quickly.
West Indies
After laying a bit of a marker down by winning the T20 match so impressively West Indies will be looking to take that positive form into this first ODI and get off to a fast start in the series. We never really saw the best of their batting in that T20 game apart from the openers but the form of Shai Hope in the Test series suggests there is more to come from them.
They don’t have Sunil Narine and Carlos Brathwaite with the ball in this series so they need to make sure that once their opening bowlers finish their new ball spells that there is someone who can keep the pressure on England. West Indies teams in the past have been confidence machines so a fast start could be huge for them.
Team News
Eoin Morgan has confirmed that England will open the batting with Jonny Bairstow which means that Jason Roy will sit out. He didn’t confirm whether Chris Woakes or Tom Curran would play.
Shai Hope is set to come into West Indies’ side and all eyes will be on him after his form in the Test series. Jason Holder resumes the captaincy from Carlos Brathwaite for the ODIs. Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels will end their ODI exiles.
Old Trafford
There have been 44 previous ODIs at the Manchester venue and it is one England very much like. They have 23 wins and just 12 defeats with a no result from their 36 games here. West Indies have two wins and three losses from five outings.
This is probably the best cricket wicket in the country. Batsmen will get full value for their shots but the pace and bounce in the track ensures the bowlers are always kept interested. As a result scores of 300 are not frequent here.
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Betting
I’m going to take a slow start to the series. We don’t have any weather issues to worry about which is good but as it is a five match series we can ease our way in and see how both sides approach things before we get stuck right into the other matches.
The T20 was a boundary laden affair and with West Indies not having a penchant for running I’m expecting them to target the boundaries throughout their batting innings. That is very much the way England look to do things these days as well so a 55.5 boundaries line looks perfectly achievable for two aggressive batting line ups.
Tips
VOID – Back Over 55.5 boundaries for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with William Hill
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