A busy day at the T20 World Cup concludes in Guyana on Saturday night when the tournament co-hosts West Indies go up against the associate nation of Uganda in another big match in an intriguing Group C.
The result in this group on Friday as intensified the pressure on all the teams in it. West Indies will look to keep up their unbeaten start to the competition while Uganda will go in search of a second win from their three matches to put themselves right in the qualifying shake up.
West Indies
You would be lying if you said that West Indies were convincing in their opening win over Papua New Guinea last weekend but when you consider some of the results we have seen in this tournament so far they will be pleased just to avoid a potential banana skin and get over the line. They are going to need to build their way into the competition because that performance won’t get it done very often but this is a side that if they are allowed to build confidence could be most dangerous when it really matters.
West Indies will be comfortable with their bowling display against PNG, although I do think it is fair to say that they weren’t put under any pressure for pretty much the entire innings but when it came to the run chase they certainly won’t be happy. They got themselves out of the trouble they got themselves into but they were shackled far too easily and need to impose themselves on the opposition much better than they did to a solid but ultimately limited Papua New Guinea attack. All eyes will be on the batters to see if they can break out here.
Uganda
Uganda began the tournament having won just being here considering who they beat in the qualifier to come through to the main event. If they were able to be competitive in enough matches that would have represented a really good showing but they have already surpassed that having picked up a win in their opening two matches. You could say they only beat Papua New Guinea but PNG are much more established than them and were huge favourites to win that game.
Uganda set up the victory with the ball, which actually apart from the opening 10 overs against Afghanistan, and even that performance doesn’t look as bad now as it did then given what they did on Friday night, their bowlers have done really well so far. They crawled to a paltry target but when you think about the pressure their players, few of whom are professional cricketers if any, would have been under to get over the line to create history, they can be forgiven for struggling to get home. The important thing is they got there and now they can relax and given their last two matches against huge opposition everything they’ve got.
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
There is no reason for West Indies to make changes to their side for this match given that they won their opening game but if they do want to switch things up then the likes of Shamar Joseph and Shimron Hetmyer are options.
With this match being played on the same pitch which the Afghanistan vs New Zealand one was played on Uganda might consider bringing about spinner back into their side in which case henry Ssenyondo could get a recall.
Betting
I’ll go for a couple of bets in this match with the first of them being on Nicholas Pooran to clobber at least a couple of sixes. The one thing I’ve noticed with the Ugandan bowling attack is they all spin it into the pads of a left hander and that could be carnage against a Pooran who has the sort of confidence that will entice him to take the spinners on regardless of the situation. Pooran released the shackles against Papua New Guinea last week with a couple of sixes and will know this ground well having played for the Guyana Amazon Warriors here in the past. We saw on Friday night that you can hit sixes on this ground and with the power that Pooran has I think he’ll have every chance of hitting a couple of sixes.
Dinesh Nakrani hasn’t had the tournament he would have wanted yet but this is a player who has three T20I 50s to his name so he can clearly bat and in a match where you wouldn’t think too many Uganda batters are going to get going he looks a decent price at 15/2 to come out on top in the Uganda batting charts. To be fair, there was a lot to like about Riazat Ali Shah in the win over PNG given the way he held himself together to take Uganda home but he’s around half the price of the man who is likely to walk in one wicket after him. Nakrani is a left hander which I think is important with both the West Indies spinners turning it into the pads of lefties and so at the price I’ll take a chance that the experienced Nakrani can get in and king of get going.
Tips
Back N.Pooran – Over 1.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with Coral
Back D.Nakrani Top Uganda Batter for a 1/10 stake at 8.50 with Unibet
