THE EDGE: Our cricket tipster The Edge previews Thursday’s 2nd ODI between ENGLAND v INDIA with a recommended BETDAQ bet.

MATCH OVERVIEW:

England have to pick themselves up and dust themselves down after one of the biggest ODI beatings in the 1st ODI on Tuesday! The Sky Sports crew simply said that “England didn’t turn up” after they were all out for 110 in a dramatic first innings collapse. With such an even game expected before the off, you can imagine the dramatic moves in-running on Betdaq Betting Exchange as England found themselves 7/3 within the first three overs. We all know England aren’t that bad, but it is one of those results that catches headlines. India only needed 18.4 overs to chase it down, but Thursday is a new day at Lord’s and this England side is full of talent.

When you play such an attacking brand of cricket as England do, you are going to have these type of collapses. The reality is, would you rather collapse all out going for 300+ or grind to 200 and lose slowly? England have chosen to attack and all costs, and with that comes heavy defeats and big wins – it’s the nature of the game. They are ODI World Champions and don’t become a bad side overnight. The thing about this series however is that the Indian bowlers are in top form. They were superb in the opening two T20’s before England got the upper hand with a massive score in the 3rd T20. I would assume we’ll see a very similar story here – England will keep attacking and it’s a case of who wins out – the Indian bowlers or the England batters!

Virat Kohli was missing from the 1st ODI with a minor groin strain. That just adds to the drama – the England fans said he was dropped, even after such a brilliant bowling display the questions to Bumrah was asked why Kohli didn’t play. He basically pushed off the question saying he didn’t know how bad that injury was. That drama rolls on, and it will be interesting to see does Kohli play here. Whatever you say about England cricket at the moment, it’s not boring! We should have another fantastic game here, but hopefully a longer one than Tuesday.

WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:

I went into the 1st ODI expecting a big score, and that didn’t happen! India chased it down so quickly without losing a wicket that I don’t think we were wrong to expect a big score. It just didn’t work out for England. Lord’s isn’t as batting friendly as The Oval, however in general at Lord’s you want to look up rather than down to see what the ball will do. With very sunny conditions expected and little cloud cover, I would expect batting conditions to be very good. It’s a big playing field, so 300+ will be a very challenging score even with the conditions. A score of 300 won’t be odds on, put it that way. The recent International ODI’s have been low scoring here, and perhaps a score of around 280 will be good enough batting first.

RECOMMENDED BET:

Once again we have a reasonably open market. India are slight favourites at 1.9, but you would expect that. While the UK media might be overreacting to the England collapse, the betting markets know better. They rightly view that collapse as just a blow out, and nothing much changes. England won’t even change their tactics. We landed our bet on India in the 1st ODI, and I feel the correct play before the odds is a small bet on India again at the odds. Everything is just working for India at the moment – their batters have been in top notch form and they have put three very high scores together in the T20’s even with one in defeat. And then their bowlers have been fantastic – I know they conceded a high score in the 3rd T20 but batting conditions at that ground were unreal. This will be a little different, and I feel India’s bowlers will have a lot of success here. Add that to the fact their batters are in superb touch and India look a clear bet at 1.9.

The Edge Says:
Two points win India to beat England at 1.9 with Betdaq Exchange.

View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/2EngInd

IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:

There will be a lot of traders in this market trading with caution when England bat. Who wouldn’t after that collapse earlier in the week, but it really is just the way they play. I don’t think they will change their tactics, but I can understand not wanting to have a big stake on them while batting in this game. The shrewdest play is probably just to wait and see what happens while England bat – but I do expect the Indian bowlers to enjoy these conditions. It won’t be a massive run fest, and they can do very well. England’s bowlers will have less success in my opinion, and I would be keen to support the Indian batters except Virat Kohli who may or may not play – if it does play he’s worth taking on again. That paid nicely in the T20’s and he is a man under immense pressure.