THE EDGE: The Edge previews Thursday’s England v Pakistan 4th T20 with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
England v Pakistan 4th T20
MATCH OVERVIEW:
England and Pakistan put in their final preparations for the T20 World Cup on Thursday as they face each other at the Oval. Unfortunately for cricket traders on Betdaq Betting Exchange, two games have already been washout in this series already! It really hasn’t been ideal prep for England heading into the World Cup, and you just know that’s going to be a major talking point if they start badly or have a poor tournament. A couple of the big sides have opted for no warm-up game in the conditions in USA and West Indies; I have to say I would have played at least one game. Pakistan got three games in Ireland so they have more reps with the England squad just getting two.
I know most of their players played in the IPL, but I still would have given them an extra game. However, even some of the players questioned the decision to come back from the IPL – Jos Buttler said there shouldn’t be International cricket clashing with the IPL! At the time of writing, it’s not clear if Buttler will miss this game or not – he left the squad to be with his wife who is due to have a baby, but it is confirmed that he will travel with the squad on Friday to the World Cup. Not much has changed during this series – we haven’t had much game time and I haven’t saw anything to change my opinion of the teams.
Pakistan’s batting is a little less blockbuster than usual heading into this World Cup, and their bowling is a little weaker too. They were smashed around at times in Ireland which isn’t a good sign. Most of the England players had a good IPL – Jofra Archer had the perfect comeback in this series too. As I said in my preview of the rained off game, if that lower order of Moeen Ali, Liam Livingstone and Harry Brook start scoring runs then England have a crazy long batting line-up.
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
There’s an uncertain weather forecast in London on Thursday with thundery showers forecast so will we even get a full game in? The Oval is usually good for scoring runs, you tend to want to support the batting side here unless we have some very cloudy overhead conditions. We haven’t started the domestic T20 Blast yet so we don’t have any current scores; and I wouldn’t even look at the average scores here because remarkably we haven’t had an International T20 here since 2014!
RECOMMENDED BET:
Buttler possibly out of this game definitely brings the sides closer together, and the market has reacted to that pushing England out to 1.63. It’s only a handful of ticks, and to be honest it’s not fully confirmed whether or not he will play so you can expect the odds to more around on that news! England tick a huge amount of boxes coming into this game, and I’m happy to have a small bet on them at 1.63. The Pakistan bowling looked very hittable in Ireland, and again in the one T20 we got to play here. In good batting conditions, England’s long batting line-up can take advantage.
The Edge Says:
One point win England to beat Pakistan at 1.63 with Betdaq Exchange
View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/EngPak4
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
I know we’ve had a lot of International cricket at the Oval, but it’s barely believable that we haven’t had a T20 International here since 2014. This can be a very high scoring and entertaining ground in domestic cricket, but as we know International cricket is very difficult. I would definitely go into the game with an open mind on scoring; I’d lean towards the batting side because the Oval is generally quite flat but it’s hard to form a strategy with no data. I do feel the best trade will be taking on the Pakistan bowling, whichever innings that happens to be in.
