THE EDGE: The Edge previews the T20 World Cup clash between India v Ireland with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
India v Ireland
MATCH OVERVIEW:
The T20 World Cup continues on Betdaq Betting Exchange as India take on Ireland from New York on Wednesday. On paper, there is a huge gulf in class between the sides and the whole cricketing world will expect India to win here. However, we saw our first ever game in New York on Monday as South Africa beat Sri Lanka, and the wicket was very difficult. It looked very uneven at times, and we saw some swing too. Not only that, but the boundaries were pretty big – coupled with the difficult wicket it was hard to score boundaries. That resulted in Sri Lanka all out for just 77 runs; their lowest T20 total ever. South Africa chased it down, but they lost four wickets and it took them 16.2 overs too.
So, New York seems a very difficult batting wicket. I felt the ICC might have wanted an extremely good wicket here to showcase cricket with some high scoring action, but based on the first game it looks quite difficult to score. This gives Ireland a better chance than usual in my opinion – on a decent wicket India would blow them away. If Ireland can win the toss and bat first, you never know what might happen. India come into the tournament as the clear favourites, all the pressure is on them and Ireland have their star bowler available in Josh Little. Given how in demand he is with franchise cricket, he doesn’t play for Ireland that often – he missed the Pakistan home series and the Netherlands/Scotland tri-series due to the IPL.
From an Indian point of view, it will be interesting to see how they approach this game. They come into the tournament off the back of a record setting IPL with some exceptionally high scores. This wicket means they’ll have to change those tactics – but they have enough experience in the side to know what they have to do here. Given conditions, this game is more interesting than it might have been!
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
Obviously we don’t have much ground data to go off here – just one game that was exceptionally low scoring. As I said above, it was Sri Lanka’s lowest ever T20 total. The fact it took South Africa so long to chase it down suggests batting conditions are very tough in my opinion. Really you just want to bowl line and length here and let the wicket do the rest. It’s actually hard to know what a par score here – Ireland could struggle to even chase down 100 given the gulf in class between the sides. It’s a no brainer to bowl first though.
RECOMMENDED BET:
Usually this would be a straightforward win for India. The sides met in Dublin a few times recently and while Ireland played well at times, India always found a way to win and that was with their second XI too. Outside of Little, Ireland don’t have many good bowling options however the wicket is really going to help that. I think the difficult conditions will bring the sides closer together, and from a value point of view I’m happy with a small bet on Ireland at 9.2 or bigger. Given it’s so difficult to bat, the market could get very interesting if Ireland get to bowl first.
The Edge Says:
One point win Ireland to beat India at 9.2 with Betdaq Exchange
View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/IndIre
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
While it’s important not to get ahead of ourselves based off just one game, you really don’t want to be on the batting side here based off what we saw on Monday. As I said above, even South Africa made hard work of chasing the very low score. If we get similar conditions, it’s a no brainer to support the side who bowls first and then consider switching at the innings break depending on the score. This could become a fascinating game – West Indies traded 1.7+ from 1.02 against PNG; maybe we could see Ireland at odds on here if we get another terrible wicket and India bat first.
