The second offering in the T20 World Cup on Thursday takes us from St Vincent to Antigua for the huge Group B clash as the defending champions England look to get their campaign back on track when they take on Oman.
Oman have put up three competitive showings in this tournament so far but their competition will end after this match. They would love to end the title defence for England before they go. England need a huge win here.
England
You have to say that so far England are making as much of a mockery of this title defence has they did their 50 over one in India at the back end of last year. There has been a similarity between the two as well and not just in results. They have made some questionable decisions, both with team selection and after winning the toss, are already guilty of overthinking things and halfway into their group campaign they already have to not just win their last two but win them by enormous margins and even then it might not be enough to go through.
England’s bowling has been bang ordinary in this competition but those bowlers haven’t always been helped out by some really questionable captaincy but there is no time to dwell on what has gone before, which it has to be said has been borderline embarrassing. They now need all of their batting brutality and then their bowlers to run through an associate side, a group of teams who England historically don’t go well against in this competition.
Oman
All of that will be music to the ears of Oman. Deep down they probably knew that their campaign would come to an end after this match once they went down to Namibia in a super over in their first game. To their credit though, they put up a fair enough challenge to an Australia side who they were heavily outmatched against, and then had times where they had Scotland under pressure. They now get the chance to take on the defending champions before they set off for home.
If there is a criticism of this Oman side so far it is probably that we haven’t seen their batting express themselves so far. You could understand them not doing it against Australia, while they were two down after two balls against Namibia which didn’t help the cause, but they would have been disappointed not to have Scotland under more pressure in the middle overs of the innings. In the main they have bowled well but have nothing to show for it.
Special Offer
Open a new Sporting Index account and bet £10 on the T20 World Cup (min odds 1/2) to get £20 in free bets (2x£10 free bets) to use on any sports market! Click the image below to take advantage of this great offer! 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Responsibly.
Team News
Do England take a stubborn approach for this match or will they make changes? Jonny Bairstow has to be a sitting duck to come out of the side either for Ben Duckett or Sam Curran while Mark Wood’s expensive first over against Australia could see him replaced by Reece Topley.
Oman might choose to give game time to those who haven’t had any on this trip so far but however they line up you would imagine that they are going to rotate their batting order as their better players so far have come in too late in the innings.
Betting
We once again have one of those situational circumstance games here in that while the priority for England will be just winning the match, they know that if they are going to extend their stay in the tournament and their title defence with it that someone is going to need to take an absolute pounding at some point and you would imagine that an Oman side who have just conceded 11.62 runs per over on this very ground will be prime candidates to go the distance.
The problem with backing the England boundaries or sixes which would be my usual go to play in this scenario is that if Oman back first and make a pigs ear of things there might not be enough of a target for England to get the number they need so rather than play the England lines I’m going to take the sixes line of Jos Buttler which is 1.5. The England captain is under pressure to deliver both with the bat but with results and I expect him to come out gun slinging and leading by example here. For me, he is still one of the best T20 openers in world cricket and with both Scottish openers hitting two or more sixes against this Oman attack it would be a surprise if given the situation that England are in if their captain doesn’t get himself in and go big here too.
Tips
Back J.Buttler – Over 1.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 2.50 with Coral
