We reach the halfway point of the Netherlands Tri-Nations T20I series on Monday when the two touring countries meet in the competition for the first time as Ireland take on Scotland in the third match of the event.
Ireland already have a win to their name in this tournament and will hit the front in the standings if they win here. Scotland lost their opening match so need to win to get in the mix but ultimately looking ahead to the World Cup will be the overriding thought of both sides.
Ireland
Ireland sneaked over the line in their opening match against the Netherlands on Sunday and now they will be looking to back that up and get on top of the Scots here. It is never easy to back up a T20 match the next day though and that is something the Irish will need to guard against. It might be that they make a few changes as a result of that, especially given the tight margin of that win meaning that they had to put a lot of energy into winning it.
We didn’t really see their batting catch fire like it has the potential to do in that first game. They will want that to come alive again in this one because they will know if they are to have any chance of progressing as deep as they will want to in the World Cup next month they have to go big with the bat. The positive on Sunday was their bowling just about held its nerve when things were getting tight and that feeling might give them a boost moving forward.
Scotland
Scotland didn’t really get a huge amount right in their opening match of the competition although they did look like they were restricting the Netherlands with the ball. They had them at less than eight an over deep into the innings but couldn’t maintain the intensity and allowed a couple of hitters at the back end the licence to take the game away from them. They will be eager to improve at the death part of the bowling and something else they can improve is their fielding.
They let a number of chances slip in the field and they will be all too aware that they are not good enough at this level to pass up opportunities and win matches. They also got their batting wrong. They couldn’t really get going in the powerplay and by the time they did manage to get a partnership built they had left themselves too much to do and in the end they folded to a pretty tame defeat, so a real significant improvement is needed.
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Team News
We are still waiting for Josh Little to show up in Ireland colours ahead of the World Cup but there are no signs that he’ll be involved in this game. Paul Stirling was rested for one of the Pakistan matches and if back-to-back games are out of his compass he could step side here.
You would think after a beating as serious as the one Scotland took in that opening game that they will make chances for this match. George Munsey sat out that defeat and he would be an obvious player to come into the side, while Safyaan Sharif could get a go too.
Betting
This isn’t necessarily the easiest match to bet on because I think both teams have improvement in them and it might be that the one which shows the most will win the game. I don’t think it is a foregone conclusion that Ireland win this, although I do accept they are worthy favourites to do it. I am a little wary that they are the ones backing up from the day before though and that is never an easy thing to do as I have mentioned plenty of times on this site.
The bet I am happy to go with is for Michael Jones to score more than 19.5 runs. He didn’t really get going in the opening match for Scotland but it isn’t that long ago that he was scoring nearly 200 for Durham 2s against a solid Lancashire side so there are definitely runs in him. He has taken on Ireland once in his career, which was at the previous T20 World Cup, where he scored 86 so he clearly has a liking for this attack and in truth should be too good for it. That line looks a little too low for a county professional to me.
Tips
Back M.Jones – Over 19.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.85 with Betway
