We have another double header in the T20 World Cup on Wednesday which comes from Melbourne and begins with a Northern Hemisphere clash between England and Ireland, who had very different beginnings to their Group 1 campaigns.
England had plenty in hand when they beat Afghanistan in their opening match of their campaign while Ireland couldn’t really have been much worse when they took on Sri Lanka in their first game of the main competition.
England
There were plenty of good things about the England display in their opening match of the tournament. The one thing they had to do was win the game. They saw earlier in that day how Australia came unstuck and so it was important to win but they didn’t really give their net run rate the boost that they could have done had they put their foot on the gas in their run chase against Afghanistan. To be fair some of that was down to Afghanistan too.
There is a lot of rain around in this tournament so net run rate could yet have an impact in the tournament, although England might well be confident enough to think that if they win all five of their matches then it won’t matter. Nevertheless, they will still want a decent batting performance from their top order soon and they should look to bump up that run rate as there are all sorts of scenarios where it could come into play, and will also take the pressure off the big matches if they are on the right side of it.
Ireland
If you have Sri Lanka down as one of the two worst sides in the group because they had to go through the qualifying section to get into it, then the first match could scarcely have gone any worse for Ireland. Not only were they beaten but they were destroyed really and their net run rate took some real damage. Australia might be able to repair theirs given the superiority they will have on some teams in this group but the same can’t be said for Ireland so they are really up against it.
There was so much that took place against Sri Lanka that was strange from an Irish point of view, not least the very first thing they did in terms of chosen to bat first. Their strength is with the bat and they had just put together two excellent run chases so to elect to bat was daft. It turns out that they messed up their batting innings anyway, although I suspect that is because they were chasing a huge score to set and it proved that they needed that given how easily Sri Lanka won.
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Team News
England have claimed they will play ‘the strongest team available to them’ which is wonderfully worded as it gives them the leeway to rest Chris Woakes and Mark Wood for this one and bring David Willey and Chris Jordan into the fold with the game against Australia two days away.
Ireland haven’t made any changes to their side in the four matches they have played to date which might suggest they don’t think they have anyone on the bench to make them better. George Dockrell tested positive for Covid ahead of the Sri Lanka game but still played. There is no guarantee he isn’t feeling bad though and he could sit out if he is.
Betting
I will take on two bets here. The first is the performance line of Ben Stokes which looks incredibly low at 33.5. I drone on about 3D cricketers all the time when I take these performances but there isn’t many 3D cricketers who open the bowling and bat at four these days but that is what Stokes is doing for England. He had this line covered with the ball along against Afghanistan in the previous game. He also had a catch on top of that and as one of the best fielders in the world that can never be ruled out in any game. He has opened the bowling for England throughout this tour so far so I don’t see that changing and in swinging conditions he could help himself with the fresh nut. He is also a wonderful batter who shouldn’t be inconvenienced in any way by this Irish attack so the potential for Stokes to cover this line has to be quite high.
I’ll also have a stab in the dark on Barry McCarthy to be the leading Irish run scorer at 100/1. The conditions ahead and potentially during this match should make batting quite difficult and England have an armoury of bowlers who move the ball through the air so I wouldn’t be surprised if Ireland are in a similar position to when they faced Zimbabwe in their opening match when swing and seam bowling left them 22-4 and 102-8. England certainly have the swing bowlers to do that so it isn’t beyond the realms of possibility that McCarthy is coming to the crease with a top score in sight. We saw in that Zimbabwe game that he can hit a decent ball as he showed with 22 off 16 balls which included a couple of sixes. The Durham man has scores of 30* and 32 in T20 internationals against South Africa so we know he can hit pace attacks and I’ll pay to see if England’s go off his bat in these conditions.
Tips
Back B.Stokes’ Performance – Over 33.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back B.McCarthy Top Ireland Batter for a 1/10 stake at 101.00 with Coral
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