The second match of the Champions Trophy is a repeat of the last World Cup final as Australia taken on New Zealand at Edgbaston. With England looking pretty tasty in the first game on Thursday both sides will be keen to win this match and take the pressure off their game against the hosts.
Australia won that World Cup final two years ago and they are the favourites to win this match too but you should never write off a New Zealand side who are going along under the radar so this one is set up nicely.
Australia
The world champions go into this tournament without having played any of the format for four months aside from one warm up match prior to the event so it will be interesting to see how they handle things. That said the majority of the side have been playing plenty of limited overs cricket in recent times.
One of the reasons why Australia are so good in this format is that they have that potent combination of a top batting line up with power right the way through it and a scary good bowling attack which very rarely offers any let up at any stage in the 50 overs. Add in decent fielders and they cover all bases.
New Zealand
Few sides in the world have played as much 50 over cricket as New Zealand in recent times although that didn’t necessarily do Bangladesh any good on Thursday. New Zealand warmed up for this match with a tri-series against Bangladesh and Ireland which they performed well in so they should be in a nice groove.
If there is a concern it would be that they only passed 300 once in their four matches in that tournament but we should point out that they were without their best two batsmen in Martin Guptill and Kane Williamson. In high scoring conditions they have to put up stacks of runs to get anything from this.
Team News
Steve Smith suggested on the eve of the match that he wouldn’t play all four seamers. The school of thought is that James Pattinson will miss out while Adam Zampa could be left out too. Chris Lynn looks set to play.
New Zealand appear to have just the one selection decision to make and that would be whether Tom Latham or Luke Ronchi gets the gloves. You would think it would be the former. Leaving Jeetan Patel out on his home ground could be hard.
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Betting
There are three bets I like in this match. Annoyingly we might need to dodge a shower but hopefully it passes down the side of the ground and we get a full game in because this could be a classic encounter.
I expect Australia to win the match but they are a little short to back as a single so the best way to back them could well be to add them to hit the most sixes and win which William Hill have kindly boosted to odds against. I expect Australia to hit the most sixes in most of their matches with Warner, Finch, Head, Maxwell and Lynn wielding the willow and they have the better bowling attack too. 11/10 is a good price on that.
One of those bowlers, Mitchell Starc, has a wickets line of 1.5 which looks low to me. In the seven ODIs Starc has played against New Zealand he has covered this line on five occasions. One of the two he didn’t cover was in Sydney which suits spinners more so I won’t hold that against him. Starc’s out and out pace can deliver the goods and see him bag a couple of scalps.
I had a look at Sky Bet’s request a bets for this match and one I like is both sides to score more than 299.5 runs at 15/8. Runs have come freely at Edgbaston this season and that shouldn’t change. Sides filled their boots in the warm up matches here and in the Royal London One Day Cup the first three matches had first innings in excess of 300 with the one match not having it being inadequate as 281 was chased down with overs to spare. This is void if the match isn’t 50 overs so that carrot is too tempting not to chomp on.
Tips
VOID – Back Australia to win and hit the most sixes for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with William Hill
Back them here:
Back M.Starc – Over 1.5 wickets for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Ladbrokes
Back him here:
VOID – Back Request a Bet – Both teams to score more than 299.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 2.88 with Skybet
Back it here:
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