The penultimate T20 between India and England takes place in Ahmedabad on Thursday with all eyes on the contest to see if it is won before a ball is bowled when the coin lands like in the first three games, or whether the status quo can be changed.
England have won two tosses and therefore two matches so they go into this game knowing if they win again they will wrap up the series with a match to spare. India know they have to win if they are to force a decider on Saturday.
India
It has been swings and roundabouts for India in this series so far. We can’t be too harsh on the matches they have lost because although they haven’t batted brilliantly, all three matches have followed the same trend in that it is harder to score in the first innings and much easier in the second, with bowling being the other way around. They capitalised on the one chance they have had to bowl first but been found wanting on the other two occasions.
While Virat Kohli will want his men to master the art of batting first and looking to defend a score in these sorts of conditions ahead of the World Cup, the plain truth is that it isn’t easy so it will be interesting to see how things go here. The one thing they can do is pack their batting so that at least if they are forced to bat first and set a score they can set a mighty big one with bowling difficult in the second innings regardless of who is operating for them.
England
Although England won the toss and had a huge advantage from it on Tuesday, they still had to bowl well which wasn’t necessarily a formality after the way their bowling attack was flogged to all parts in the match before. This was the England bowling display of the first game though, although they came close to losing their heads when Kohli put the pedal down towards the end of the innings. They could argue much of the damage was already done by then.
Again although chasing in these conditions appears to be much the easier way to go with things, you still have to do it and England have done it confidently on both occasions, losing no more than two wickets each time. That shows that their top four are in great form and like with India they will want to get better at setting a score and seeing if they can defend it because knockout matches in the World Cup will be played at this sort of time so conditions will be similar.
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Team News
Viralt Kohli defended KL Rahul after the last game but you could see it written on his face that his time is up and Ishan Kishan will move up to open here. Suryakumar Yadav is likely to come back in for Rahul in potentially the only change.
You would think England will want to see Moeen Ali and Reece Topley at some point in this series. Whether they come in here or have to wait and hope the series gets won and they get the final game remains to be seen.
Betting
This hasn’t been a particularly high scoring series and I’m not expecting too much to change in that regard but rather than take the runs here I’m going to go on the under for sixes. Even the game that was moderately high scoring wasn’t laced with sixes so the boundaries are tougher to clear here than we would imagine. There is a shorter boundary for this pitch but these two teams are adept at bowling to the longer one which will help.
This is also the second match on this pitch so much like the first one we can expect it to slow up and die as the game lingers on so both sides will know their slower balls and cutters will be more effective. India’s batting hasn’t really got going with the exception of Kohli and one knock from Kishan and Iyer, the latter not really a six hitter, whereas only the top four of England have had real time in the middle and one of those in Malan isn’t a prolific six hitter. 12.5 is probably the right line for sixes but with totals of nine, 12 and 11, I’m happy to play the under.
Tips
Back Under 12.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 1.90 with Betway
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