The seventh set of matches at the ICC Cricket World Cup get underway on Tuesday when two Asian sides head to Eden Gardens in Kolkata to battle it out when Bangladesh take on Pakistan in the first low-key game of the competition.
Bangladesh are already eliminated from semi-final contention here and are playing for a spot at the Champions Trophy. Pakistan technically can make the semi-final but way too much has to go their way for it to be likely so this could have a dead rubber feel to it.
Bangladesh
This tournament began well for Bangladesh when they overcame the challenge of Afghanistan in their first match of the competition but things have gone west quickly from there. They go into this game off the back of losing their last five matches and had it not been for the horrendous showing at this event from England, Bangladesh would be rock bottom and under all sorts of scrutiny. Their latest defeat to the Netherlands was as tame as it was disappointing.
The big problem for Bangladesh has been their batting. They still can’t get a platform from their top four and continually pay the price for it. They had the Netherlands where they wanted them with the ball in the previous game but couldn’t finish the innings off strongly and in the end the scoreboard pressure mounted because they shouldn’t have been chasing as many as they eventually were and they ended up paying the price.
Pakistan
Things started even better for Pakistan when they won their opening two matches but they got on the wrong side of things in the third match and can’t seem to arrest the slide. Even when it looked like they had South Africa beat in their latest outing they allowed them to get off the hook and ended up snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. That loss all but ended their competition from a competitive point of view and with them having already qualified for the Champions Trophy there is little for them to play for.
The Pakistan fortunes have pretty much mirrored their batting in this tournament. They had enough players going well in their opening two matches and won them as a result but in the latter four there hasn’t really been a standout performer and they have been well beaten. Their seamers have been expensive at the top of the innings too which hasn’t been ideal and has left them chasing the game from an early stage. That isn’t a good combination.
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Team News
Bangladesh did have a scare over their captain Shakib Al Hasan in the lead up to this match but he returned to the nets and is expected to play this one. Bangladesh might well be unchanged for this contest.
Pakistan will be forced into making one change because Shadab Khan failed concussion protocols in the last game. That means that Usama Mir is going to get another chance to impress. Fakhar Zaman and Hasan Ali are fit again and could return.
Betting
The first pitch here in Kolkata didn’t play anything like people expected it to and they generally don’t get better in this part of the world so much like on Monday we might see two Asian sides produce a lower scoring game here. Even if the pitch is good here, neither of these batting units are firing on all cylinders and even if they suddenly come to the party then they are not exactly the biggest hitting teams in the world either.
Pakistan seem determined not to take a batting innings deep in this competition and to be fair to them even if they do go deep here the Bangladesh death bowling isn’t the easiest to get away. Exactly the same can be said about the Bangladesh batting and the Pakistan death bowling. The run line for this match is 520.5 which feels on the high side when you consider that the opening match here had just 371 runs with Bangladesh bowled out by the Netherlands for just 142. The under appeals to me here.
Tips
Back Under 520.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Betway
