The last of the opening round of matches in the Super Eights stage of the T20 World Cup takes place on Thursday evening when the two teams yet to get their second phase of the tournament underway do so when Australia go up against Bangladesh in Antigua.
Australia were dominant in their first group and cruised into this stage of the competition. Bangladesh had to work a little harder for their qualification but in the end they got through unscathed and probably don’t have much to lose now.
Australia
You could argue just what Australia have beaten to get to this stage of the competition because the only full member side they have faced were England and they couldn’t have played into the hands of the Aussies any more on the day if they had tried but you can only beat what is in front of you and Mitchell Marsh’s men have done that. The real stuff begins here but they have got games into pretty much everyone in the first phase and look good from here on in.
The positive for Australia is they have had their entire campaign in the Caribbean so they know how the pitches are playing in this part of the world. They will need to improve to make it out of what is a competitive group but the longer the 50 over tournament went on the better they got so they have recent history of moving through the gears in these global events. The one thing they will need to do is play spin well and that isn’t always a given with them.
Bangladesh
When the tournament started success for Bangladesh might just have been getting to this stage and ensuring that they are in the next World Cup. They have a really young squad which you would imagine will be much better for this experience and ready to go again in conditions which they will know much more in India and Sri Lanka. Having done that they can attack this Super Eights stage with a bit of freedom and that could make them dangerous.
Bangladesh are probably going to need to bat better in this tournament but it is harsh to be too critical of them because they started their campaign in USA where the pitches weren’t conducive to batting. They have slowly looked a bit better since they got to the Caribbean but how they handle the pace of this Australian attack will probably determine how well they go in this match. They have a bowling attack which can more than hold its own though.
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Team News
Australia chose to rest a couple of players for the previous game having already qualified but they are likely to be back to full strength here so Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins are expected to come into the side for Ashton Agar and Nathan Ellis.
Bangladesh haven’t made too many changes to their setup over the course of the tournament so it wouldn’t make much sense for them to go rogue and change too much now. They are likely to be unchanged from the win over Nepal.
Betting
I expected this Antigua pitch to play better than many thought on Wednesday afternoon and it certainly did and I’m not convinced it is going to play too badly here the next day. I wouldn’t say I expect this match to be as high scoring as the one between South Africa and USA was but I do think Australia will bat well on this wicket and if Bangladesh come out with a bit of freedom then there is no reason why they can’t score a few runs too.
I’m not going to go with runs here just in case Bangladesh bat first but don’t quite get up to the number required for the over. The bet I like comes in the form of the boundaries where a 33.5 line looks on the low side. I expect Australia to score big in this match and if they are chasing a low score they were just in a group where in behind them net run rate was a big thing so I would imagine they will relish the chance to bolster their net run rate in case rain comes along later in the group. There were 45 boundaries here on Wednesday and in the only other full 20 over game there were 41 which involved Oman. This line feels low on a wicket which isn’t playing as bad as some have in the tournament.
Tips
Back Over 33.5 boundaries for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
