The second half of the double header in the T20 World Cup 2021 on Saturday offers up a repeat of the 2016 final when England take on West Indies in Dubai in a match which is sure to invoke memories in both teams.
Both teams will know they are in the ‘Group of Death’ in this competition so they will be keen to get off to a winning start. They have three of the six T20 World Cup titles thus far so these are two of the best exponents of the 20 over game.
England
As the 50 over world champions, England carry a little extra pressure into this match with them. I don’t know if revenge will be spoken about given that they have won that ODI World Cup since the final of this in Eden Gardens five years ago but it might be something that motivates England, especially with so many players involved that day still in their side now. Starting a tournament on the front foot is likely to be more of a motivation for them.
England have the chance to answer a number of questions in this match. The main one of those is whether their aggressive, hit everything batting style can be effective on these wickets. One thing which might help them is the fact that this Dubai ground hasn’t been used since the final of the IPL so the pitch should be relatively fresh. The other question they can answer is whether they have the right attack for these conditions.
West Indies
As the defending champions the onus is probably on West Indies to hit the ground running in this match so you would imagine they will come out all guns blazing. They are probably still the most feared team in this format of the game even though there is a concern that conditions may not suit their style of batting and that their squad as a whole might be a little beyond their peak rather than being in their prime as so many were five years ago.
What they lack in comfort in these conditions, they more than make up for with experience but you can’t hide players in the field anymore and running between the wickets is going to be a concern. There is no guarantee they’ll be able to smack everything out of the ground so if they need to keep turning the strike over that is a concern. West Indies don’t lack for pace with the ball though which is one thing they have on their side here.
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Key Men
You feel as though England need to get ahead of the game in order to feel comfortable in this match so Jos Buttler at the top of the innings is going to be a big player for the 50 over champions. He arrives in decent form after a good knock in a warm up match.
The weakness of this England side is still their death bowling so Kieron Pollard could be a big player for the West Indies. As the captain he’ll want to deliver a good performance first up and he could explode with the bat. He might be required with the ball too.
Betting
With the dew likely to play a bigger part in this match than is ideal in a World Cup I’m not going to get involved in the match betting until we know the outcome off the toss but there is another bet I like in the match, which comes in the form of over 12.5 sixes. I don’t envisage myself taking sixes very much in this tournament because I expect the wickets to tire but there hasn’t been a match on this ground in eight days and the pitch played brilliantly in that IPL final anyway.
Clearly these are two of the bigger hitting teams in the competition and while both attacks could go well if everything falls into place for them, you wouldn’t say they are in the top three teams in terms of bowling in this tournament so I’m expecting the big hits to be a possibility. Both teams look to play the same way, with an intent to smack everything out of the park initially and then adjust things downwards from there if they need to. I fancy over 12.5 sixes will land in this one.
Tips
Back Over 12.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 1.85 with BetVictor
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