The attention moves from Brisbane to Perth for the second match of the three in the T20 World Cup on Sunday as the two winless teams in Group 2 of the Super 12 stage meet when the Netherlands take on Pakistan.
This has been a disastrous campaign for Pakistan so far and already their destiny is out of their own hands but a win here, and an emphatic one at that, would offer them a route back into the qualifying shake up. The Netherlands go in search of a major scalp in this one.
Netherlands
I guess it is fair to say that the Netherlands won the equivalent of their World Cup when they made it out of the first group and into this Super 12 stage. They went into this group looking to play well, offer what they have to the world and maybe take a more established team down with them. They so nearly ticked the latter box in the opening game against Bangladesh but couldn’t quite fall over the line, before being outplayed by India in their second match.
I think that was to be expected and it might be that the best chance of a Netherlands win from here on in comes against Zimbabwe but they have nothing to lose in this match and if they can just lay a platform at the top of the innings when they have the bat in hand then it could be the difference between giving themselves a chance and being run over again. They will certainly need to adjust to the unique Perth conditions quickly.
Pakistan
This has been a tournament of woe for Pakistan so far but it could have been so different for them. For 38.4 overs they were all over India in their opening game and let it get away from them and then probably for a similar amount of time they had Zimbabwe on the ropes in the second game only to let them escape the net. Both matches led to last ball defeats and that has left their campaign hanging by a thread.
It means that even three wins from their final three matches won’t be enough to guarantee a semi-final spot for Pakistan. At least two of those wins will need to be by a sufficient margin and they are under huge pressure to get the job done here. The advantage that they have going into this match is they do at least know conditions in Perth having played Zimbabwe here. Their top order will need to come to the party for Pakistan to be comfortable in this one.
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Team News
There is no sign that the Netherlands are going to make changes to their side for this match but should Roelof van der Merwe be fit then he might find his way back into the XI for the batting depth that he offers them.
Pakistan have Asif Ali waiting to return to the side but you couldn’t really say that Haider Ali has done a huge amount wrong in the limited opportunities he has had to deliver in the team. That would be the only change were they to switch.
Betting
I like a couple of bets here and the first one is very similar to the bet I took in the Pakistan vs Zimbabwe game on this ground a few days ago which is under 32.5 boundaries. There were 23 boundaries in that match and while I would expect a few more here, I’m certainly not expecting an avalanche of them. An avalanche was what we got from the bat of Marcus Stoinis in the previous match on this ground where both teams scored more than 150, which is higher than I expect here, and there were only 31 boundaries. I don’t think the Dutch will cope too well with the pace, bounce and quality of the Pakistan attack and I’m not convinced Pakistan are batting well enough to batter the boundaries even should the opportunity present itself. This looks like a comfortable under to me.
I’ll also take Scott Edwards to produce a captain’s knock and top score for the Netherlands. We haven’t really seen the best of him with the bat in the tournament but as an Australian native we know he’ll be suited to being on the back foot and with the exception of Max O’Dowd, you can’t really say that about too many of this Netherlands batting unit. O’Dowd will be facing the new ball which is doing plenty here in Perth so I certainly wouldn’t want to be relying on him to go well. We’ve seen in all the matches here that players in the middle order are scoring well. Liam Livingstone top scored for England at five, Marcus Stoinis did likewise for Australia in the same position and Shadab Khan was going nicely before holding out. Edwards scored 71* against this attack in an ODI in the Netherlands earlier in the year and looks the value to top score for his side here.
Tips
Back Under 32.5 boundaries for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with William Hill
Back it here:
Back S.Edwards Top Netherlands Batter for a 1/10 stake at 9.50 with Betfair
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