THE EDGE: The Edge previews the Champions Trophy clash between AUSTRALIA v ENGLAND with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
Australia v England
We have a massive Ashes clash at the Champions Trophy on Saturday with Australia v England on BETDAQ Betting Exchange! The format of the Champions Trophy is quite cut-throat; we’ve already saw this in Group A. Pakistan waited so many years to host an ICC tournament and now they are in the position of having to beat tournament favourites India. The way Group A worked out, Pakistan v New Zealand was always a de-facto Quarter-Final. That isn’t the case in Group B given Australia, England and South Africa can all beat each other and we know Afghanistan can hold their own too. The reality still remains however that the loser here faces a long road back to get into the Semi-Finals.
So, both sides have to start with all guns blazing. That has been somewhat of a problem for England recent – they have got off to slow starts on many tours. They also bring a terrible ODI record into this tournament. Since winning the ODI World Cup, it really has felt like their 50 over side has been the unloved child – their domestic game has been put alongside the Hundred, which means none of the major players play 50 over domestic cricket anymore, and with the ECB adopting a two squad approach the 50 over side has nearly always missed key players due to the likes of Joe Root being involved in the Test squad at the time.
Brendon McCullum has taken over as white ball coach now, but England didn’t really suggest they could win the Champions Trophy in their recent tour of India. From an Australian point of view, they are current World Champions and will definitely smell blood with this England side – however Australia couldn’t have had a worse run with injuries. They are missing Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Mitchell Marsh – how do you replace that line-up? A fascinating match awaits!
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
This will be the first game of the tournament at Lahore. Locals will be hoping that India don’t reach the Final (more so than usual given the history between the Nations!) because this ground will host the Final should India not be involved – otherwise it’ll be in Dubai. We have had recent cricket here because South Africa, New Zealand and Pakistan played a Tri-Series as warm-up games for this tournament. We saw scores of 330/6 (won) and 304/6 (chased). When Australia toured here in 2022, we saw 348/8 chased by Pakistan. I’d expect good batting conditions.
RECOMMENDED BET:
We have an interesting market here. There are definitely reasons to take on both sides. We have pretty much the exact same market as we had between Pakistan and New Zealand on Wednesday – we landed a bet there on the outsiders New Zealand, and despite their woeful ODI record coming into this tournament I feel it’s worth taking a chance on England at 2.2 here. There’s no getting away from the fact that they have been poor recently, but Australia are missing some key players through injury – I’m just not sure how your replace a line-up like that – especially in the bowling department. On what should be a very good batting surface, the blockbuster England batting could finally get their chance to shine.
The Edge Says:
One point win England to beat Australia at 2.2 with BETDAQ Betting Exchange
View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/CTAuEn
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
Obviously we had a huge gap in ground data here with the break in International cricket, but Lahore has mainly been a high scoring venue since cricket returned to Pakistan. The recent games were very high scoring affairs too – with Australia missing their key men in the bowling attack, I’d be keen to take them on. You’d probably also take on the England attack; their ODI bowling hasn’t been good enough recent and they mainly rely on their batting firepower to get them through games. I do feel this is an excellent chance for the England batters to fire; if you can trust them!
