The opening ODI of three between New Zealand and West Indies takes place on Wednesday, or late on Tuesday evening for those of us who are in the UK. With this just being a three match series both sides will know the importance of going one up with two to play.
New Zealand
After dominating the Test series New Zealand will be out to do likewise in these ODIs but they will know 2017 hasn’t been their best year in the format. They have plenty of limited overs assignments coming up this summer so a good start will see them in a good frame of mind for what is to come later on.
The top order has been a source of concern for the Kiwis for much of the year. They haven’t really been able to get a consistent opening partnership going which has always put pressure on their middle order. We saw them handle that pressure on occasion in India earlier in the year but overall they have struggled with that.
West Indies
It is a little bit of a mystery why West Indies are so poor in this format of the game when they are so good at the shortest format of it. A year or so ago you would have pointed the finger at the lack of senior players playing for them but that is not the case now so they really have no excuses and need to start to deliver the goods in 50 over cricket.
Another reason has been the inability of the West Indies bowlers to keep things tight. They don’t generally take wickets with the new ball which leaves them exposed and when they bat they struggle to rotate the strike which can get them behind the required rate. They are improving in that area but have more to do.
Team News
New Zealand will be without Colin de Grandhomme for this series due to a family bereavement. Doug Bracewell replaces him in the squad but may not feature in this first match.
West Indies will have to do without Marlon Samuels and Alzarri Joseph as they have been ruled out of this series. Chris Gayle will feature after his record breaking exploits in the Bangladesh Premier League recently.
Cobham Oval
This will be just the second ODI on this ground after New Zealand thrashed Zimbabwe here a few years ago. The West Indies played a high scoring warm up match here a few days ago so they should be used to the conditions which are expected to be good for batting.
[the_ad_group id=”3624″]
Betting
Given that the wicket is expected to be good for batting and that both sides look stronger with the bat than they usually do I think the natural bet is to take over in the total runs. That is especially the case when we see that the line is only 570.5 runs.
That looks low in New Zealand and while this isn’t one of the tiny grounds New Zealand can play limited overs cricket on it isn’t big by the standards of world cricket. West Indies just made 288 in their warm up here which should have been a lot more and they lost the game. A repeat is enough for us here.
Tips
Back Over 570.5 runs for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Bet365
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2017
