We have the first triple header of the T20 World Cup on Thursday with the action getting underway at the Sydney Cricket Ground as Bangladesh take on South Africa in a key clash in the Super 12s Group 2.
Bangladesh were able to beat the rain to win their opening match of this phase of the tournament and will be looking to position themselves strongly with another victory here, while South Africa were frustrated by the rain and will want to make amends in this one.
Bangladesh
Heading into the tournament there weren’t too many people who were as confident about the chances of Bangladesh as those within the camp were. They didn’t really feature as a competitive force in the Tri-Series against New Zealand and Pakistan in the lead up to the tournament and their T20 form since the last World Cup left plenty to be desired, so they will be delighted to have proved people wrong and won their opening match of the Super 12 stage.
That win was only against the Netherlands, the weakest team in the group on paper, but I think given their form going in Bangladesh would have taken any win however it came. You wouldn’t say that it was the most fluent win in the world but it offers them a platform to build from in a group which is already being dictated by the rain. If there was a negative to the win it was that it was only by nine runs so hasn’t really given them a net run rate buffer.
South Africa
Fans of South African cricket won’t need me to remind them about their issues with rain in World Cups be it 50 over or 20 over and in this part of the world in particular. They ran head first into it in their opening game, a match which was initially shortened to nine overs and then couldn’t be finished as there wasn’t enough time to get five overs of the second innings in before the heavens opened. What made it worse for the Proteas was they already had the scored they would have needed after five overs.
In many ways the South African assault on this tournament can begin here. In the brief amount of play we saw in their opener against Zimbabwe it was obvious that Quinton de Kock was hitting the ball well and that there is plenty of heat in their bowling attack, although we knew that anyway. What we still have to find out is whether their batting can deliver over 20 overs and whether the change bowlers can maintain pressure on the opposition.
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Team News
Bangladesh are not ones to make changes to winning combinations but having picked the extra seamer to deal with conditions in their first game they might be tempted to bring Mehidy Hasan Miraz into the team for this one.
South Africa also went with the extra seamer in their opening match which led to them leaving Tabraiz Shamsi out of the XI. With Sydney expected to assist the spinners more it could be that the Chinaman bowler comes back in here.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets here, although it has to be said that the forecast for this match doesn’t look promising. If it clears up or is wrong though then I like the performance of Mosaddek Hossain which looks incredibly low at 18.5 points. He does bowl so even one wicket gets this covered but it isn’t beyond the realms of possibility that he covers it with a couple of catches either. He can also cover it with the bat which is what he did in the win over the Netherlands and you would have to think that in a full match if the Dutch can get him into bat then the South Africans certainly can. Since August 30, Mosaddek has hit 48* against Afghanistan, 24* against Sri Lanka, 27 against the UAE and 20 against the Netherlands so there is every chance this gets covered with the bat so I like the over in this one.
The other bet I’ll go for would be for a shortened game scenario where I like Rilee Rossouw to be the man of the match. He will bat three regardless of how many overs there are but if Quinton de Kock happened to get out early then Rossouw could easily come in and swing from the first ball and catch the eye. Rossouw’s last two innings was 100 in Indore against India and 54 against New Zealand in a warm-up match in Brisbane, both not out. He is hitting the ball really well at the minute and it wouldn’t take much for him to be the player of the match here.
Tips
Back M.Hossain’s Performance – Over 18.5 points for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back R.Rossouw Player of the Match for a 1/10 stake at 1/10 stake at 10.00 with Boylesports
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