THE EDGE: The Edge previews the England v West Indies 1st T20 with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
England v West Indies 1st T20
MATCH OVERVIEW:
The T20 series between England and West Indies gets underway on BETDAQ Betting Exchangeon Friday. West Indies will be hoping for better fortune than the ODI series where they were hammered. West Indies can have no real excuses either – they had a warm-up series in Dublin against Ireland. They blew away the cobwebs by losing their opening ODI there, but then came roaring back with some superb batting. They put up two massive scores, but only managed to win one game with the Irish weather preventing a result in the other.
This series has highlighted the gulf in class in world cricket though. West Indies were putting up close to 400 runs by the end of the Irish series – now England are doing that to the West Indies after they posted 400/8 in the opening ODI. That was an embarrassing defeat for the West Indies as they were all out for 162. They did go closer in the 2nd ODI, but Joe Root lead England with an incredible 166. With India coming for a Test series this summer, having Joe Root in peak form will be absolutely massive for England. Of course, the T20 squad has a younger feel to it, but the England side are still very strong here.
The batting looks very solid now, albeit they are a young side. The bowlers are probably the weak point for England but that’s been the case in white ball cricket for a number of years now. It’ll be interesting to see can West Indies be more competitive in the shorter form of the game.
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
We start the T20 series at the Riverside Ground in Chester-le-Street. This ground isn’t one of the bigger ECB grounds – we’ve actually only had four International T20’s here since 2012. I doubt the scores from then are going to have much impact research wise here either given how much cricket has changed in recent years. The most recent game here was in 2023 when New Zealand toured – New Zealand only managed 139/9 and England chased it down with 36 balls to spare. I would go into this game with an open mind on scoring.
RECOMMENDED BET:
It’s no surprise to see England as the favourites here. To be honest, I thought that they would be shorter than their current 1.49 when I clicked into the market. I know England usually go for a younger side in the T20’s, but the West Indies bowling has been taken to the cleaners on this tour so far, and they went around the park in their first game against Ireland too. That will be the difference between the sides in my opinion, and I’m happy to take the 1.49 on England.
The Edge Says:
Two points win England to beat West Indies at 1.49 with BETDAQ Betting Exchange
View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/EngWin
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
It’s hard to go into this game with a set in-running strategy in my opinion. We don’t have much ground data to go off, so I don’t see batting or bowling offering a massive edge – it’s more a case of current conditions than historical data. Likewise, we will see changes from the ODI squads here too – the only angle I’m keen to go with is taking on the West Indies bowling, whatever innings that happens.
