SUNDAY T20 WORLD CUP: The Edge previews India v South Africa with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
India v South Africa
MATCH OVERVIEW:
The T20 World Cup Super 8 stage serves up a blockbuster on Sunday on Betdaq Exchange ! Defending champions and tournament favourites India face the second favourites for the tournament South Africa – a dominant win for India will have everyone asking who is going to stop them. This is a repeat of the 2024 T20 World Cup Final in Barbados, this time at the world’s largest cricket stadium in Ahmedabad – apparently they got 90,000 for the India v Netherlands so we’re surely going over the 100,000 mark here! Since that Final, South Africa finally got the chokers tag off their back with a win in the World Test Championship. It will be fascinating to see how competitive they are with India here – with Australia already out, everyone is probably looking to South Africa to challenge India. England, the third favourites, haven’t been at their best either.
The main talking point coming into this game has been the ICC’s pre-seeding system has produced a deeply unsatisfying group draw. The ICC pre-seeded eight teams based on T20I rankings before the tournament, slotting them into predetermined Super 8 groups regardless of how they actually performed in the group stage. The rationale given was logistics, given the co-hosted format across India and Sri Lanka. The result? Every single group winner has ended up in the same Group – this Group! It’s hard to defend that, but we all know how the ICC work at these tournament – we always get India v Pakistan it’s never a random draw. The whole point of winning your group should be to earn an easier path in the next stage – a reward for topping the table. Instead, the ICC’s rigid seeding system means the reward for going unbeaten through the group phase is to face the three other unbeaten sides! However, India and South Africa won’t mind facing Zimbabwe and West Indies, let’s be honest.
Anyway, onto the actual cricket. India come into this having been absolutely dominant in the group stage. They have had an easy tournament, including that commanding 61 run dismantling of Pakistan in Colombo – obviously plenty of drama and hype around that fixture. South Africa meanwhile have been equally impressive. Aiden Markram has led from the front – his 86 from just 44 balls against New Zealand was the standout innings of the group stage; their batting has been very impressive – the big question is this game is can they be so attacking against this Indian bowling. A fascinating game awaits.
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
Conditions have been very good for batting at Ahmedabad. Nasser Hussain summed it up perfectly during the India v Netherlands game on Wednesday: ‘It’s a batter’s paradise. And it gets better as the night comes on.’ The first inning scores have been 213/4 (won), 187/6 (tied) and 175/7 (chased). We can get spinning wickets here, but we generally haven’t saw those conditions in T20 cricket – it’s been mainly Test cricket. Dew is a factor here, and that’s something to watch closely for – that will give the chasing side an edge but you have to say that we’re going to have good batting conditions in both innings here.
RECOMMENDED BET:
India are the defending champions, they are at home, they’ve gone through the group stage unbeaten, and it’s no surprise that they are the odds on favourites. As I said above, everyone is looking to South Africa for someone to challenge India and we’re going to see how that works out here. I fully accept India should be favourites, but the 1.47 feels a little short with the amount of quality South Africa in their side. Their batting has been fantastic and I feel they are worth a small bet here at the odds – granted it’s always hard to go against India in their own conditions – I’d just have South Africa a little shorter and expect a closer game than the odds suggest.
The Edge Says:
One point win South Africa to beat India at 3.05 with Betdaq Exchange
View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/WcInSo
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
Given the dew factor, I’d give a slight edge to the side chasing. However, I’d expect very good batting conditions in both innings, and this is generally a game where you want to be supporting the batters rather than the bowlers. This pitch rewards aggression, and I feel the deciding factor will be how the Indian bowlers deal with South Africa attacking them – surely South Africa have to go for it on a very good wicket!
