The T20 Tri-Series continues on Wednesday when Bangladesh and New Zealand meet for the second time in the tournament in a Christchurch clash which could see the finalists of the competition confirmed with a match to spare.
Bangladesh lost their opening two matches and head into this one knowing they must win the game to stay alive in the tournament. New Zealand have won their last two and will book a place in the final with a win here.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh have started this competition very slowly. It will concern them that they have lost their opening two matches but what will be more of a worry is the fact that they have barely been competitive in either of them. They were convincingly beaten when chasing against Pakistan in their opening match and they were just as easily beaten when they batted first against New Zealand in their second outing in this tournament.
They have had a few days off to work out what went wrong and what they want to focus on achieving in terms of preparation for the World Cup which is rapidly closing in. They tried one or two things out in those opening games, which is largely what this tournament was designed for, but they won’t want to go into the World Cup off the back of four defeats on the spin so they will be looking to take something from this match or their final one.
New Zealand
The Kiwis were a little sluggish out of the blocks, which was a surprise when you consider they went down to Pakistan in their opening game, a Pakistan outfit who hadn’t long been in the country. The longer the competition has gone on and players have fallen back into their roles the better they have got. I still wouldn’t say we’ve seen a team who are going to go to the World Cup as genuine contenders but there are players to return and no team wants to peak too soon.
The biggest thing from the New Zealand win over Pakistan on Tuesday was the fact that their top order did all the scoring. They needed a confidence boost for that unit and they duly got it. We have known all along that the depth of the New Zealand white ball bowling would have them competitive with the ball more often than not but there were question marks over the top order and the form that they have shown in recent times. Those questions started to get put to bed on Tuesday.
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Team News
You would imagine there will be Bangladesh changes for this match. Mustafizur Rahman didn’t play the last game so it makes sense for him to return. Shakib Al Hasan batted at seven in that match. Expect a bigger role for him here.
Trent Boult was rested for the win over Pakistan on Tuesday and with the Kiwis backing up the next day you would imagine they’ll rotate their bowlers. It might be time for Tim Southee to have a rest with Adam Milne and Boult possibly returning.
Betting
We saw spin have a huge impact in the match between New Zealand and Pakistan on Tuesday and I don’t see anything different happening on Wednesday so we might just have a wicket here which is perfect for the abilities of Shakib Al Hasan. He played a fairly quiet role in the previous match between these two sides but I don’t see him batting at six and being the fifth bowler to be used as a regular option for who is quite clearly the key man for the Tigers.
Shakib has a performance line of 35.5 which assuming he bats and bowls in the places we would be accustomed to him doing means he can cover this line with the bat or the ball but he can also cover it with a combination of the two. Regular readers will know I love a 3D cricketer in these markets. Shakib will have scoring potential with the bat, the ball and as captain he’ll field in key positions as well and as the pitches deteriorate he should come into his own so I like the over there.
Tips
Back S.Al Hasan’s Performance – Over 35.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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