THE EDGE: Our cricket tipster The Edge previews Saturday’s T20 World Cup clash between Afghanistan v England with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
MATCH OVERVIEW:
After all the drama in the opening group stages of the T20 World Cup, we kick off the Super 12 on Saturday! Hopefully this stage is just as entertaining on Betdaq Betting Exchange, but given the fixtures we have ahead of us I’m sure it will be! England get their World Cup campaign started against Afghanistan, and although they will be fully expected to win here, Afghanistan will still give them a decent test. Afghanistan have a lot of world T20 stars, but it’s fair to say that they haven’t been at their best recently. They had a poor Asia Cup, and lost a five game T20 series to Ireland recently too.
England have warmed up for this World Cup with a series win away to Pakistan and then a series win here in Australia. You can’t knock that prep, but would it be fair to say that they start this tournament not fully knowing what their best XI is? They have such a wealth of talent, there is always going to be competition for places. It seems strange that someone like Ben Stokes is under pressure for his place in the middle order, but that’s the stands this England side is setting. I don’t think England could come into this tournament in better form with the bat, but they have to deliver now – despite winning the series’ over the last few weeks, they are still prone to the odd batting collapse which they can’t afford here.
England will be heavy favourites to start the tournament with a win, but it will be interesting to see how they handle the spinners here. In fairness though, if the openers get off to a flyer then they won’t be under too much pressure in the middle overs. It will also be interesting to see how the England bowlers start – we all know that is their weak point.
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
We get underway at noon UK time from the Perth Stadium, and usually we have good batting conditions here. The wicket is still relatively new here – this was a new stadium built to replace the WACA but because of Covid19 it hasn’t seen the action it should have by now. We’ve actually only had two T20 Internationals here, but that’s going to change because it’s going to see plenty of action in the World Cup. We did have a recent game here when England won a T20 against Australia and that was very high scoring. England set Australia 208/6 and to be honest Australia should have chased it down. They were in a very strong position but didn’t close it out. We should be OK weather wise, but the long-range forecast for this tournament looks very bad at the moment so keep an eye on it.
RECOMMENDED BET:
It is hard to see past an England win here, but the 1.13 does seem very short. Afghanistan aren’t that bad, admittedly they could come into the tournament in better form. They have a lot of hitters in their batting order though which will suit conditions here, and while the spinners might not have the help they need they can still put the England middle order under pressure if they can get an early wicket or two. I think it’s a reasonable position to feel England will likely get the job done here, but from a value point of view I feel they should be bigger. I’m going to have a small bet on Afghanistan at the odds.
The Edge Says:
One point win Afghanistan to beat England at 7.0 with Betdaq Exchange.
View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/AfgEng
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
While we don’t have much T20 International data to go off here because of Covid19, we know from the Big Bash this is generally a high scoring ground. Again we missed some years because of Covid19, but that Australia v England game gave us a good idea that conditions haven’t changed that much. Given England have a reasonably weak bowling line-up when compared to their batting I feel we’ll see the most movement in the market here when Afghanistan bat. I’d expect them to do better than expected, and if they bat first they might prove to be an excellent trade. I’d expect another high scoring game here to be honest with the bat winning over the ball.
