In a world where T20 internationals seem to be going on all the time at the minute, another series begins out in Jamaica on Wednesday when West Indies and New Zealand set off on their three matches over the course of the remainder of the week.
As we know from the amount of T20 internationals we are seeing around the world, the primary aim in these matches is continuing to build for the T20 World Cup which is just two months away. The best way to do that is win matches and both teams will be out to do that here.
West Indies
Whatever happens in this series the West Indies won’t be able to use inactivity as an excuse as they go into the match off the back of campaigns against Bangladesh and India recently. As expected they were on top against Bangladesh but they were found wanting against India and now face a side who just made the last T20 World Cup final nine months ago. That should give West Indies motivation to remind everyone that they are the top dogs in this format but this is a team in a bit of transition.
West Indies had that horrible combination against India where their batters couldn’t get on top of the bowling and their bowlers just couldn’t find a way to restrict the India batters. On the face of it they look to have an easier challenge here but that doesn’t mean that they’ll be to win without playing well. You sense when they get to Australia for the T20 World Cup their batters will be fine so all eyes are on their bowlers to see how they go.
New Zealand
There has arguably been no team who have been more active in recent times than New Zealand. They have played series in Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands over the last month or so, coming out on top in all of them and now they will hope to convert that into a win against a stronger West Indies side. The negative of playing all that cricket is they won’t have been able to get a warm up match in here so they will be blind to the conditions.
New Zealand look to have a lot of bases covered. Their bowlers have been in excellent form in this recent bunch of matches even though they have missed some key names. Having depth in the squad is certainly no bad thing and although they have got the job done with the bat in this last month, there is more improvement in them in that department and that will most likely come when some regular batters come back into the ranks.
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Team News
West Indies have named the same squad for this series as the one they used to take on India over the last couple of weeks. Akeal Hosein missed the last of those games but he is expected to return while Kyle Mayers should return too.
New Zealand have picked a much stronger squad for this series to the one which took on the associate nations. Kane Williamson, Trent Boult, Tim Southee and Devon Conway all return and may all start this game.
Betting
Given that there hasn’t been a T20 international at Sabina Park for a number of years and because of the pandemic the venue hasn’t been used in the CPL for a while either, it is hard to know quite what to expect in this match but with three matches here in four days there is a good chance that the pitch will suit the batters first up and with both these teams having been quite active in recent times the batters should be suitably up to speed on what isn’t the biggest ground in the world.
That makes me think that these two sides can combine for more than 12.5 sixes. In the older days I wouldn’t have taken this in a New Zealand game but they suddenly have a wealth of six hitters in their ranks and the one thing we know about West Indies is that they all hit a long ball. New Zealand haven’t had a warm up match so their bowlers might be less sure of the conditions so in a game I expect to be the highest scoring one of the three I’ll take over 12.5 sixes.
Tips
Back Over 12.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 1.75 with Betway
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