WEDNESDAY T20 WORLD CUP: The Edge previews India v Netherlands with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
India v Netherlands
MATCH OVERVIEW:
The T20 World Cup continues on Betdaq Exchange with India back in action on Wednesday as they take on the Netherlands in the final round of Group A fixtures in Ahmedabad. India have already qualified for the Super 8s after an absolutely dominant group stage, while Netherlands are already eliminated after a brutal 93 run loss to USA – that one would have been hard to take to be honest. Netherlands pride themselves on being the top associate nation. They started brilliantly – pushing Pakistan incredibly close in the tournament opener and then Bas de Leede’s superb all-round display led them to a thumping seven wicket win over Namibia. The wheels fell off afterwards.
Everyone will be expecting a comfortable win for India here, and to be honest there’s no shame in losing here for the Netherlands. They could do so much more if the ICC properly funded these nations and gave them more fixtures against the big sides. They need more bilateral series, they need better funding, and they need a proper pathway to compete regularly – imagine what Netherlands could achieve with even half the investment that the Full Members get. The fact that they nearly beat Pakistan with the resources they have tells you everything. The ironic thing about this fixture is, it’s mostly the BCCI that control the ICC and thus makes the decisions about funding the smaller nations.
India will be looking to sign off the Group stage with a smooth win here nevertheless. After all the boycott saga – Pakistan’s government initially refusing to play, the ICC staring down the barrel of a $174 million loss, frantic negotiations in Lahore, and then the last-minute reversal – the actual match was a one-sided affair at the weekend against Pakistan. Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah looked in good form; everyone will be asking who can stop India at the moment!
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
The biggest cricket ground in the world in Ahmedabad hosts this one; it will be interesting to see what kind of crowd they get given it’s such a one sided game on paper. It’s been a great venue so far in the tournament; South Africa posted 213 against Canada, and then we had that incredible double Super Over between South Africa and Afghanistan. New Zealand and South Africa played here on Saturday as well with South Africa chasing down 178 comfortably. The pitch has generally been very good for batting, dew is always a possible factor at this time of the year in India. I’d expect a high-scoring game, but obviously there’s a big gulf in class here so a par score for India batting first will be very difficult to Netherlands batting first!
RECOMMENDED BET:
There’s a massive gulf in class here; there’s no getting away from that. India are trading as short as 1.03 at the time of writing, and it’s close to impossible to see past a comfortable India win. With a price like that, there’s just no value in backing India pre-off. You’d need something dramatic to happen for there to be any kind of upset here. Netherlands have some talented players, so we might get some drama in-running. We’ll just have to wait and see how play develops because it’s hard to have a pre-off bet here.
The Edge Says:
No Bet.
View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/WCInNe
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
Given India have already qualified, the interesting question is do they rest anyone? That’s probably the first thing to look at, but given the wealth of talent they have it’s hard to see the market moving that much. Everyone will just expect a comfortable India win here. If Netherlands bat first, they do have the talent to post 200+ on this ground given their firepower but they would need some massive innings from their top players. They would then need early wickets, but I would give a slight edge to the chasing side with dew so maybe Netherlands will opt to bowl first and see can De Leede and Klaassen get early wickets in the powerplay and put India under some pressure. As I said above, we’ll just have to wait and see does this one get competitive.
