THE EDGE: The Edge previews the 4th Test between INDIA v ENGLAND with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
India v England 4th Test
MATCH OVERVIEW:
Onto the 4th Test between India and England. This time the sides meet in Chennai, and England are in a must win situation to save the series as they are 2-1 down. We’re all set for another enthralling Test on Betdaq Betting Exchange with plenty of drama in the market. Even in a relatively one sided 3rd Test we saw the India price bounce around quite a bit. Bazball hey, there’s never a dull moment. When shots come off for England everything looks excellent, but when it doesn’t come off just like Joe Root experienced, the knives come out quite quickly.
The knives are most certainly out for England’s Jonny Bairstow too. We all know Bairstow can win games on his own, but a 0 and a 4 in Rajkot put England under immense pressure at the time. India is a hard place to play your cricket when you’re in good form and full of confidence, never mind when you’re out of form. McCullum and Stokes have come out with full backing of Bairstow – that’s what they’ve done for everyone in this England team – but he must be feeling the heat with all the media pressure.
From an Indian point of view, they have two chances to win the series. They don’t lose in India often – their loss in the 1st Test only their fourth in ten years after all. India will feel that the 3rd Test was a textbook win; batted big first and bowled England out quickly in the final innings. The home side will be the heavy favourites again, but as always you never know what can happen with Bazball. Another fascinating Test awaits.
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
We back up the Tests quickly here as the sides move to Ranchi. England should know this ground well, they actually played the first International game here back in 2013 (an ODI). Test cricket wise, we’ve only actually had two Tests here. A draw in 2017 and one win in 2019. Cricket has moved on a lot since then, and I would go into this game with an open mind scoring wise. Obviously I still feel that India will be asking for turning wickets, but we might see a similar wicket than what we had in Rajkot. I think batting first will be very important again regardless; if it’s a good wicket you get the chance to put scoreboard pressure on and if it’s turning square you get best use of it.
RECOMMENDED BET:
India come into the game as the red-hot favourites at 1.54. It’s interesting to see the draw trading in single figures here; there were a lot of layers for the draw after seeing how quickly the 1st Test ended but obviously we don’t have much ground data to go off here so I wouldn’t want to be laying high prices. I don’t think there’s actually that much between the sides compared to their prices, but at the same time I feel whoever bats first will have a massive advantage here. We landed that bet in the 3rd Test, and there’s no reason why we can’t land it here. If it’s India then around 1.5 is fine and if it’s England around 4.0 should offer value.
The Edge Says:
Three points win the Side Who Bats First with Betdaq Exchange
View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/4IndEng
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
We’ve had plenty of twists and turns in each Test, and I’d expect more of the same here. England collapsed twice in the 3rd Test but they looked good at one stage in their first innings. The best advice here is to not get married to a position; this market should bounce around a lot. The side batting first has won all three Tests so far, and that’s a record that I feel will continue here. The way the wicket is expected to play I just see it being a massive advantage – I would trade with that in mind for most of the Test to be honest. Laying the side bowling first might be a good option if the wicket looks good as the draw price will also come into things. If we have a big spinning wicket then you want to be against the batters mostly but you’d still expect the side that bats first to have an advantage as chasing in the final innings will be very difficult.
