The former champions Australia get their T20 World Cup campaign underway in the third of the three matches in the tournament on Wednesday when they go up against the minnows of Oman at the Kensington Oval in Barbados.
Australia start out their tournament here while Oman will be playing for the second time having dropped their opening game in a super over loss to Namibia which pretty much ended any hopes they would have had of qualifying.
Australia
The 50 over world champions and the winners of the World Test Championship begin their quest for the historic treble in this match and they will be widely expected to win the game and win it well. I would imagine Australia will improve the longer they are in this competition because a number of their players have arrived late to the Caribbean after their IPL commitments and will be experiencing these conditions for the first time on this trip.
They shouldn’t have a problem here but in an ideal world some out of form players might get the chance to find some form in this one, although if Australia win this like they will be expected to then not many players are going to get a bat and their change bowlers probably won’t need to have much of an impact. That won’t matter here but looking ahead to the huge clash with England at the weekend it could play a part.
Oman
Oman were swimming against the tide and in with sharks from the second ball of their match against Namibia having lost wickets on the first two balls of the contest. It was always going to be a long way back from there but they have to be given so much credit for making the fight of it that they did. They never really got on top of the bowling but they did enough to put some sort of score on the board and then they defended it like trojans.
It goes without saying that they are going to need to be much better with the bat here against a much stronger bowling unit but they are also going to need to bowl better than they ever have before. I think they will know they are up against it here but at the same time they have nothing to lose and a wonderful platform to show the best of Oman cricket with an eye on what can come down the line for them in the future.
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Team News
Given the late arrivals in the Caribbean it remains to be seen just how Australia line up for this one. If those who have just arrived need a few more days to acclimatise then we might see the likes of Nathan Ellis and Marcus Stoinis given bigger roles.
Oman captain Aqib Ilyas has confirmed that he won’t be changing his bowling attack from the first game despite the super over being costly but there could be a change up to the batting both in order and personnel.
Betting
The top scorer for Oman in their opening match made 34 runs so I’m a little surprised that the line for the top Oman batter in this one is 42.5 given that it is on the same ground against an infinitely stronger bowling attack which will give no let up and in Adam Zampa has a mystery spinner which the Namibia one never had. It is hard to believe Oman are going to get many more than the 109 they managed in the previous game. Oman have only ever played one established Test nation in a T20I which was on home soil in the 2021 World Cup where they made 127/9 against Bangladesh with a top score of 40. This line looks a little too high to me.
Oman were blown apart from the left arm swing of Ruben Trumpelmann in their opening game and they might have a similar issue facing Mitchell Starc in this one. Starc looked really good at the IPL and should have a bowling rhythm that tears stumps out of the ground. If Australia are on top he might even be given three overs in the powerplay here which could take the chances away from the likes of Ashton Agar and Adam Zampa coming after him. Starc finished with 10 wickets in his last five IPL matches and if he can continue that form here the 11/4 on him being the top Australia bowler is just too big.
Tips
Back Oman Highest Individual Score – Under 42.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back M.Starc Top Australia Bowler for a 2/10 stake at 3.75 with Boylesports
Back him here:
