THE EDGE: The Edge previews the T20 World Cup clash between BANGLADESH v SOUTH AFRICA with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
Bangladesh v South Africa
MATCH OVERVIEW:
A new week begins at the T20 World Cup on Betdaq Betting Exchange as Bangladesh clash with South Africa on Monday afternoon. Both sides have made very positive starts to the tournament – South Africa are nearly in the Super 8s already after two wins from two games, while Bangladesh won a huge game against Sri Lanka. You could have called Group D the group of death at the start of the tournament with South Africa, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Netherlands and Nepal. On paper, it was the strongest group because Netherlands and Nepal are two top tier associate sides and then Bangladesh or Sri Lanka could beat South Africa as well. As it turns out, USA have beaten Pakistan in Group A and England might be in a bit of bother after their game against Scotland was rained off.
Bangladesh came into this tournament in crisis mode. They lost a series against USA where they started long odds on favourites to win each game. They clearly haven’t been at their best for a while, and Sri Lanka or Netherlands would have been quite confident of that second spot. Bangladesh could easily still go home; it’s only been one win but it was a massive one against Sri Lanka. They will be expected to lose here, and then it comes down to beating Netherlands and Nepal later on. While everything might look rosy looking at the table, South Africa made very hard work of beating the Netherlands. They kept them to 103/9 but took 18.5 overs to chase it six wickets down. In fairness, the game was in New York where batting has been exceptionally difficult.
This game is also in New York, and you have to feel that will bring the sides a little closer together given the wicket has been so tough to play on. While Bangladesh did start with a positive note, Sri Lanka are also at a very weak point so I wouldn’t read too much into that win. South Africa still tick a lot of boxes here, and have a very strong batting line-up. A fascinating game awaits.
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
All the focus for the New York games has been on the wicket. Obviously cricket at this level in America is very new, and dropping in wickets can be very hard – however lots of things have gone wrong. Whatever about the wicket being poor, the outfield being so poor is embarrassing because there is quite literally no excuses for that. After the India v Ireland game, the ICC released a statement saying that are working hard to fix the issues and make the wicket a little better for batting. We have increased scores a little – Canada posted 137/7 against Ireland, but then Ireland failed to chase it down. Still, it’s an improvement from Sri Lanka’s 77 and Ireland’s 96. You don’t want to be on the batting side for long here!
RECOMMENDED BET:
South Africa come into the game as the red-hot favourites at 1.36. They are definitely the better side, and they have the high quality batsmen to deal with this wicket. The South African bowlers will fully understand how to use the conditions; we see a lot of bouncy and uneven wickets in South Africa! That being said, I do feel that the 1.36 is too short because Bangladesh have an excellent seam attack too. I’m going to keep stakes small but I do expect a closer game than the odds suggest here – Bangladesh have had a number of issues with their batting and I wouldn’t be too confident on them, however in the conditions we can see their bowlers do well on a difficult wicket.
The Edge Says:
One point win Bangladesh to beat South Africa at 3.75 on Betdaq Exchange
View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/SouBan
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
While I have no doubt that the ICC have worked very hard to get the wicket up to a good standard, you still don’t want to be looking for trades on either side while batting here. Even in the Canada v Ireland game where the side batting first finally won, we didn’t see massive market movement until Ireland started the chase. The strategy is quite straightforward here in my opinion, you support the side who bowls first and then decide whether or not to switch at the innings break based on current conditions.
