The second part of the double header in the T20 World Cup on Sunday sees the opening match of Group 2 of the Super 12 being played out when India take on Pakistan in a repeat of the inaugural final of this tournament at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
These two opened up their T20 World Cup last year too when Pakistan demolished India while they shared a couple of battles at the recent Asia Cup so the two teams will know each other very well despite their fractious relations.
India
India are seen as the heavyweights when it comes to T20 cricket. A lot of that is because they were the first winners of this tournament and then the Indian Premier League is so successful that they should be lording it up in this format of the game, however they haven’t really threatened to win this title in the last 15 years and their tournament cricket over the last 12 months leaves plenty to be desired, so India have a bit to prove here.
India have no issues when it comes to their recent form having beaten Australia and South Africa in home T20 series over the last month but it goes without saying that conditions here will be significantly different. With the injuries they have to Ravi Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah it could be that India choose to try and utilise all of their batting strength. Whatever they do they are going to need plenty of batting firepower.
Pakistan
Despite the disadvantages that Pakistan have continually faced in the world game, they continue to offer a threat at these major tournaments. They made the semi-finals of this a year ago and reached the final of the Asia Cup recently. Since then they have given England a good battle over seven home matches and won a T20 Tri-Series in New Zealand where they played some really good cricket. Pakistan might have some shortcomings but they head to Australia in fine fettle.
One of the reasons why Pakistan have had that success over the last 12 months or so has been the strength of their bowling attack. It is a rarity when they don’t at least challenge to defend even a par score so it means that their batters don’t need to break their backs or take unnecessary risks trying to score totals which they don’t need. That allows two of the best batters in the world to continually deliver the goods and it is a potent combination.
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Team News
India will need to decide on the balance of their bowling attack but with the rain that has been around in Melbourne it doesn’t make a huge amount of sense for them to pick an extra spinner so they could play seven batters and ride the bowling of Hardik Pandya for a fifth bowler.
Pakistan seem to have a fairly settled side these days. Their batting order can remain untouched as Shan Masood has been passed fit to play. Shaheen Afridi and Haris Rauf will lead the attack with Naseem Shah most likely the other seamer.
Betting
Thankfully the weather looks like it has cleared up for this match so we can get stuck in and at the prices I like Pakistan. There is something about India in tournaments recently that hasn’t been convincing and I think Pakistan are in place to take advantage of that. They have a pair of new ball bowlers in excellent form and their openers are going great as well. On top of that they have dangerous floaters in the batting and bowling department. Whichever way India line up here they are going to be unbalanced because of the injury to Ravi Jadeja and that doesn’t bode well for them. I think the dimensions of the MCG suit the Pakistan players more than India too as Pakistan don’t rely on smashing everything out of the park and on top of that I think more key players are in form for Pakistan than India. When you throw it all together I think the 13/8 on Pakistan is good value here.
One man who sometimes goes under the radar who might excel for Pakistan here is Mohammad Nawaz, a player who performed very well against India in both Asia Cup meetings between the two. In the first one which India won, Nawan took 3/33 and added a run to his total of 61 points and in the game Pakistan won he scored 42 runs, took 1/25 and picked up three catches for 92 points. He has a performance line of 27.5 points to cover here. He covered this in four of the five matches in the Tri-Series in New Zealand and in the warm-up match against Afghanistan just with a wicket and a catch. He has plenty of scoring potential to bring this in.
I’ll also have a go on Dinesh Karthik to be the top India batter in this match. Since he returned from injury Shaheen Shah Afridi has been getting the new ball to talk and if he does that again here then it could come down to someone experienced down the order to manage the innings and then get a few shots away at the end to take the top score. Although the weather has cleared up you would imagine this will be a tough wicket to bat on first up in the tournament so someone who has good cricket IQ will have every chance of top scoring. I’ll pay to see if that man is the Indian keeper.
Tips
Back Pakistan to beat India for a 3/10 stake at 2.63 with Bet365
Back M.Nawaz’s Performance – Over 27.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back D.Karthik Top India Batter for a 1/10 stake at 21.00 with BetVictor
Back him here:
