CRICKET WORLD CUP: Edgbaston plays host to the second semi-final of the Cricket World Cup on Thursday. It’s ENGLAND v AUSTRALIA for the right to play NEW ZEALAND in Sunday’s final. What’s the best bet on BETDAQ?
England and Australia will battle it out in the second of this year’s ICC Cricket World Cup Semi-Finals for the right to meet New Zealand in Sunday’s Final. Edgbaston is the venue and the forecast is for a mainly dry day with plenty of sunshine, so everything is set up for a cracking contest. England are the slight favourites on the Betdaq Exchange priced at 1.66. Australia 2.20.
It was Australia who came out on top when the sides met in the Group Stages in Lord’s, winning by 64 runs. They missed the opportunity to finish top of the Group on Saturday losing to South Africa by 10 runs. Collectively Australia have performed strongly as a team and some individual players have really stood out. David Warner (638 runs) and Aaron Finch (507 runs) are both in the top five run scorers. Steve Smith had also had some brilliant innings. Mitchell Starc is the highest wicket taker with 26 wickets. After a fast start Pat Cummins have been a bit quiet the last few games but still has 13 wickets to his name and is still a man England will be well aware of.
After winning four of their opening five games, back-back defeats left England needing to win their last two games vs India and New Zealand and they delivered on both occasions. Johnny Bairstow grabbed most of the plaudits vs New Zealand hitting 106 runs. Bairstow, Joe Root and Jason Roy are all enjoying very good tournaments with the bat. Root is England’s top scorer with 500 runs. Jofra Archer is showing maturity beyond his years, especially considering he only made his England ODI debut earlier this year. He is England’s highest wicket taker with 17 wickets. Mark Wood is England’s in form man with the ball in hand after claiming three wickets vs New Zealand last week.
The sides also met in a warm up game and like the Group game Australia came out on top. These sides will be seeing a lot more of each other before the Summer is out as they face off in the Ashes starting on August 1st. This is a hard game to call and whoever wins the toss can have an impact on the outcome. England have home advantage and are coming into this game on the back of an impressive win over New Zealand. Australia are coming off the back of a loss to South Africa and it is because of this I’m going for England.
Verdict: England
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