The ODI series between West Indies and England continues on Wednesday and after a thrilling opening match the two sides remain in Antigua for the second game of what looks like it will be a very entertaining couple of weeks of cricket.
This match offers up the first of two chances for West Indies to claim what would be a famous series win when you consider they have spent the past two months watching the World Cup. That tournament couldn’t have gone any worse for England and they’ll want to come out of their slump here.
West Indies
Given that West Indies haven’t played much ODI cricket since they bombed out of the ICC World Cup qualifier in Zimbabwe earlier in the year, they deserve great credit for the performance that they put in during that opening game. I think they will readily admit that it wasn’t their best bowling effort of all time but you would imagine they will come on for the run so to speak and you would imagine that could make them hard to beat.
One of the reasons why West Indies have struggled in this format over way too long really has been their batting, which has often struggled to pace a 50 over innings and while it was helped by knowing the target in the first game, they certainly batted much better, keeping themselves in the hunt and setting it up for their power to come through at the end when they knew England were going to leak runs. A repeat of that will be very welcomed.
England
England started a new era in the opening game but it was hard to see much change from the way the previous one ended. This England team are becoming very good at shooting themselves in the foot and that was the case again in that first game where they were quite simply dreadful with the ball at the end of the innings. If they are going to get back to the force they were four years ago then they simply have to find bowlers who are competitive at the end of an innings.
There was a lot more to like about England with the bat in hand though. I wouldn’t say they were perfect with the bat but they had openers with great intent and a couple of smarter players in the middle order to build on the fast start that they were given. Any team who wants to be competitive in this format has to have batting depth to exploit the whole 50 overs. England showed they had that but their batting will need their bowling to assist them a little.
Special Offer
Sign up for a Boylesports account and bet £10 to get up to £20 in free bets! Perfect offer for this series! Click the image below for this great offer! New accounts only. 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Team News
You would imagine after such a good performance in the opening game that West Indies will be reluctant to change too much although after some indifferent new ball bowling, Matthew Forde could be given his debut.
It would be a surprise if England don’t make changes to a side that lost last time out. You would imagine they have named the size of squad that they did with the intention of using everyone in it so John Turner, Tom Hartley and Ollie Pope will be hoping for a chance.
Betting
I think when this series was in the calendar it would have been foolish to expect anything but a raft of sixes in it. England are more than happy to put the ball over the rope and they face a West Indies side who generally trade in dots, ones or sixes and we certainly saw evidence of that in the opening game when there were 27 sixes in a match where we saw short boundaries as ever in Antigua and a decent pitch for batting, both things I expect to see here too.
The sixes line for this match is 15.5 and that just looks too low, especially in this second game which is a day-night match so the dew is going to come into play for the side who is bowling second in this one. We saw in that opening match that these attacks are devoid of real quality and there isn’t really anyone who is going to come in who could change that. That all makes me think we are in for another encounter where the sixes flow.
Tips
Back Over 15.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 1.85 with BetVictor
