The T20 World Cup continues on Friday with another three matches in the competition with the action for the day getting underway at the controversial New York venue as Canada take on Ireland in Group A.
This group was thrown wide open on Thursday when USA shocked Pakistan and these two sides know they have to win this game in order to potentially capitalise on that. Ireland are in better shape having faced India already but Canada have lost to the current leaders USA.
Canada
This will be the second game of the competition for Canada but after this one they will know they will run into the big two of India and Pakistan, so while Pakistan just lost to USA, if the Maple Leafs are to come away from this tournament with a win to their name this would feel like the best chance of achieving it after they were defeated by USA in the opening game of the event. That form doesn’t look at all bad now which will give Canada a bit of a lift heading into this one.
Canada had an excellent first 30 overs of the match against USA and for pretty much the entirety of that period it looked like they would cause an upset but they couldn’t maintain the intensity with the ball and in the end two batters got together to launch a partnership which took the match away from the Canucks. I don’t think Canada should be too downhearted on that effort and if they can tighten up at the back end of their bowling innings they could still cause an upset here.
Ireland
While the Canadians can be happy that they were competitive in defeat in their opening game, the same can’t be said of Ireland who were plainly blown away by India in their first match. They never really got going with the bat and although there was a little bit of a bash at the end of their innings at no point did it look like they were going to have enough runs or indeed get enough. The positive is most judges would expect India to dominate the group and Ireland have got them out of the way.
Ireland have to bat better here but they are not coming up against an attack that is anything like as strong as the one India fired at them with. The good thing for Ireland is their opening match was here so they have a little more knowledge of what to expect and know exactly how tricky the pitches are playing. You sense the Irish bowling attack is going to be key here too. If they can get on top early they might find out that the Canadian batting depth isn’t as strong as it could be.
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Team News
Canada went into their opening match with the extra spinner but having seen the way the pitches have played here in New York so far you wouldn’t think that will be needed so Rishiv Joshi could replace the expensive Nikhil Dutta.
There is an injury concern over Harry Tector after he was visibly in pain leaving the pitch after his dismissal against India where he was struck on the thumb. Ross Adair would be his replacement should he not make it. Ireland might bring in Craig Young for Ben White too.
Betting
All eyes will be on the pitch for this match with the two games here so far having been played on tracks which are nowhere near good enough for a tournament of this kind. There are five more matches here after this one including a couple of important games between full member sides so you would think the pitches have to improve because nobody wants to see matches where neither team can get to 100.
I’m not going to go too mad betting on matches here until we’ve seen an improvement in the pitches but the 11/2 on Nicholas Kirton to be the leading Canada batter looks a little too big. He is of Caribbean descent so is going to be competent playing off the back foot which you have to do with the extra bounce here. He scored 51 in the opening game against USA and scored 52 in the warm up against Nepal so he is in decent nick and he is going to bat in the middle order where the sharpness of the new ball might have gone by then. Ireland are very top heavy with the ball so if the openers can go towards the end of that period Kirton could be the man to profit.
Tips
Back N.Kirton Top Canada Batter for a 2/10 stake at 6.50 with Betfair
