Ireland pulled off a huge upset in the opening T20 match of their series against West Indies earlier in the week, and when the two sides meet on Saturday, they have the first of two chances to seal overall success.
West Indies will hope the move to St Kitts will have the dramatic effect that is needed for them to get back in the series. The final two matches come thick and fast so you would think whoever wins this one will win the series.
West Indies
Whether the West Indies bowlers were taken by surprise by Ireland or whether it was just a terrible day at the office for them in the first game I’m not sure, but the one thing we do know is they will need a dramatic improvement on their level if they are to keep things under control in this match. The positive with their display in the first game with the ball, if you can call it that, is that they did stem the run flow at the end of the innings.
I don’t think their batsmen would have expected to have been chasing over 200 in that first game but that was the task they were faced with. They probably should have got home actually but they couldn’t quite get it done in the final over when the match was in the balance. Some sides would have wilted under the size of the run chase but the West Indies didn’t, so they deserve some credit for that, even though the defeat looks poor.
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Ireland
After dropping the ODI series 3-0, Ireland have to be given full credit for maintaining their belief to go out and put in a performance like the one they gave in the opening game of the series. They were ruthless with the bat earlier on, and while they might have surrendered a few runs towards the end of their batting innings, they held their nerve together well with the ball, to run out deserved winners of the opener.
Going ahead in the series is one thing, backing it up and securing it is quite another and that is the task that faces them now. They will need at least a repeat of the performance they delivered in Grenada in the first game and it might be that they need more than that. This is a free shot at winning the series though so there is little pressure on them here. That might see them bring out their best once again.
Betting
Given that we saw 27 sixes in the first T20 and we’ve now moved to a ground which as we saw in the CPL is no bigger, and in all likelihood a lot smaller, I’m very surprised that the sixes line for this contest is as low as 13.5. West Indies covered that in a losing effort in the opening match of the series and you would think if they bat first here they would do the same again in this match based on what we saw.
They won’t need to bat first though I don’t think because this Warner Park pitch is nearly always good for batting so Ireland are going to contribute to the six hitting unless something really strange happens. It wasn’t just Paul Stirling who hit big for Ireland in the opening match. There is so much hitting potential on both sides here and we’ve seen in the past that this is a ground for big hitting. Add in the dew for the second innings and it would be a huge surprise if there isn’t more than 13.5 sixes in this one.
Tips
VOID – Back Over 13.5 sixes for a 5/10 stake at 1.83 with Betway
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