Two undefeated sides go into battle in the second of the two matches at the T20 World Cup 2021 on Saturday when Australia take on rivals England in a huge Super 12 Group 1 clash at the Dubai International Stadium.
These two teams have both won their opening two matches in this group, and you would have to say have looked relatively decent in doing so. The reward for the winner here is controlling their destiny in terms of finishing top and potentially avoiding Pakistan in the semi-final.
Australia
I say Australia have looked decent but there have been times in their matches where they have looked like it has been hard work. That was certainly the case in their opening game against South Africa where they did brilliantly with the ball, coming out of the traps quickly and restricting the Proteas to less than a run a ball but they needed almost the full 20 overs to chase the score. Then in their second match Sri Lanka looked to be getting away from them but to be fair to Australia they brought it back well.
There are still question marks over the Australian openers. Both have made scores in the tournament but they have ridden their luck to do so. You also wonder if against the better teams, if they don’t take early wickets with the ball whether their fifth bowler allocation made up of lesser bowlers will get taken apart. You sense Australia are a very good side when everything works out for them but at the same time it might not take as much as they would like to become something a little too ordinary.
England
You would have to say England have looked a couple of classes apart in this group so far. It probably also needs to be said that in all likelihood all they have played so far are the teams who are going to finish in the bottom two places in the table at the end of it. That would be a fair point to make but the way England beat those sides was with a ruthlessness that they mean business and while tougher tests will most certainly follow, they can’t have done much more than they have so far.
The beauty of what England have done in the tournament so far is they have near enough secured needing just one more win to reach the semi-final. It is extremely unlikely that two sides other than them are going to reach four wins and their net run rate is so good that three wins should be enough. There is still a question mark over whether these conditions really do suit England with the bat but their bowlers are making that concern largely irrelevant to date.
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Key Men
The only way Australia are going to win this match is if they get stuck into the England top order early. There is way too much firepower in the England batting if they are allowed to get off to a solid start so the new ball spell of Mitchell Starc is going to be vital. His spell at the death might be too but Australia have to get to Malan and Morgan before too much damage is done.
Jason Roy could hold the key to success for England here. He played a good innings in the last game against Bangladesh where he was more selective with his shots and posted 50 in a comfortable run chase. If he can negate that new ball spell while keeping the run rate going in an upward direction he might just set the game up for the Three Lions.
Betting
I suspect this might be one of the higher scoring matches of the tournament. I say that because Sri Lanka were well on their way to a pretty big score against Australia a few days ago but lost their way in the final 10 overs and had to settle for 154/6 while on Friday evening Afghanistan almost cleared 150 against a decent Pakistan attack despite being 70-6 at one stage. If this was a day game I might have left tackle the over on the runs but this pitch in particular definitely plays better under lights.
There have been four night matches here. India made 151/7 in one of them when Shaheen Shah Afridi tore their top order apart, Sri Lanka made 154/6 which was probably the bare minimum they could have made and Afghanistan reached 147/6 having been four down inside the powerplay. The other game was West Indies being bowled out for 50 by England but that was an absolute mess of an innings. All five matches in total have been won by the team chasing here so for a 305.5 run line to be covered we only need 153 in the first innings if that trend continues. Both these sides have batting depth to get us there so I like the over.
Tips
Back Over 305.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Betway
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