The T20 roadshow shows no signs of stopping at the minute and less than 24 hours after they concluded the second T20, West Indies and Pakistan will meet in the third match of the four in Guyana as they continue their preparation for the upcoming World T20.
While progressing towards that tournament remains the overall aim, if the series is of interest here then Pakistan have the chance to win it with a match to spare if they can come out on top here. West Indies have to win to force a decider.
West Indies
In sport I don’t mind teams making errors and mistakes as long as they learn from them and don’t keep making the same ones over and over again. Sadly this West Indies side are in the latter camp. I highlighted heading into the second game of the series that they need to start rotating the strike and building a score rather than relying on bludgeoning balls out of the ground. I don’t know whether it is stubbornness on their part or an inability but whatever it was it did cost them.
I expect the teams who prosper at the upcoming World T20 to be the ones who have the least dot balls when they have the bat in hand rather than the one which smacks most sixes so West Indies really need to work on that. The positive is if they can find a few more runs they have a bowling attack which is becoming very effective and the longer it remains as one unit the better it is going to get. It might be that after the batsmen won them the World T20 five years ago their bowlers have to do it this year.
Pakistan
For the most part, Pakistan will be delighted with their performance in the second game. They controlled it almost from start to finish with the only time they allowed West Indies back into the match really being the last three or four overs in their batting innings. I would imagine the brief rain delay contributed to that in some way though so I’m prepared to let them have that. It was a very good performance from them aside from that.
Where I really enjoyed the Pakistan performance was the clear plans they had throughout the innings with the ball. You wouldn’t say they were defending an impossible score and at the same time it has to be acknowledged that West Indies gave them plenty of help but they utilised their matchups well and in the end they defended the total much easier than the end score suggested. Consistency isn’t the forte of the Pakistan team but if they repeat that performance they’ll be tough to beat here.
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Team News
You wouldn’t think Lendl Simmons would have recovered from his neck problem in the space of 24 hours so unless West Indies want to switch their bowling attack around a little then they might well be unchanged for this third game.
Azam Khan was ruled out of the second and third matches with the blow he took to the head in training ahead of the second game so he isn’t going to play here. Unless Mohammad Wasim was too expensive you’d think Pakistan would name an unchanged side.
Betting
I successfully took Pakistan to win the previous match and I’m surprised we can still get 6/5 about them winning this third one. I highlighted that the conditions in Guyana do not suit clean hitting of a cricket ball and although West Indies got a few lusty blows away, which they are always going to do because they are so powerful with the bat, not many of their batsmen looked comfortable at the crease at any stage and then there is the issue of rotating the strike – or not as seems to be their way of doing things.
Batting is only going to get harder on what is a slow track anyway at Guyana and I think that is only going to suit Pakistan more and more. They have a genuine class act in their batting in Babar Azam but Mohammad Rizwan isn’t far behind him. Others can work the ball and build the total and then we know they have the bowlers who can defend a score. You can never completely take on West Indies with total confidence because they have so many players that if they come off they win but these conditions are a real leveller so once again at the prices I’ll play Pakistan.
Tips
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