THE EDGE: The Edge previews the T20 World Cup clash between England v Scotland with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
England v Scotland
MATCH OVERVIEW:
England kick off their T20 World Cup campaign on Tuesday afternoon as they face Scotland on Betdaq Betting Exchange. Most cricket fans will view this as a routine win for England, and anything bar a comfort win for Jos Buttler’s side will be seen as a failure. England come into the tournament as the reigning Champions, but things have been smooth sailing recently. They suffered a major flop in India when trying to defend their ODI World Cup, and it’s interesting to see them behind Australia in the betting this time – obviously it’s not a surprise to see India as the favourites given the wealth of T20 talent they have!
England have taken the decision to have no warm-up game in the conditions before this World Cup. In fairness, they go straight to the West Indies – I feel if they had their games in the USA they might have benefitted from a warm-up game but this squad has played so much cricket in the West Indies they should know conditions very well at this stage. They had a home series win against Pakistan in the build-up to the World Cup, but some of those games were hit with rain so it wasn’t an ideal prep. You just know if they start slowly the lack of a warm-up game will be a hot topic with the UK press.
From a Scotland point of view, realistically wins against Oman and Namibia in their Group will be a big success for them – no one is expecting them to beat England and Australia but if they can be competitive in those two games and win the other two, that will be a good step forward. You have to say that at the moment Scottish cricket is heading in the right direction, but they are so far behind given the lack of money being an associate nation.
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
This will be the second game at Bridgetown in Barbados, but it’s hard to read too much into Namibia v Oman in the first game given the standard. There’s a huge gulf in class between those sides and England! As I said above, England have played enough cricket here to know conditions quite well. Generally you want to bat first here; I feel it’s a no brainer what to do at the toss. England actually played the last T20 International here before the World Cup – indeed they have played in ten of the last eleven games here! It’s hard to know what a par score here because of the gulf in class between the sides – while 150/160 might be well short of par if England bat first, you’d still fancy them to defend that for example.
RECOMMENDED BET:
It’s not a surprise to see England as the red-hot long odds on favourites. The market isn’t expecting any surprises here with England trading as short as 1.08 at the time of writing! There are so many levels between the sides it is hard to see a shock result here – the only thing Scotland have going in their favour is that England haven’t had a warm-up game in conditions, but the way T20 cricket is now that’s hardly an issue – most of their stars have just played in the IPL and they had the two games against Pakistan too. I can’t see past an England win, but I’m not backing them at 1.08. My suggestion would be to back them if they reach 1.2 in-running.
The Edge Says:
Three points win England to beat Scotland (IF they hit 1.2 in-running) with Betdaq Exchange
View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/EngSco
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
My recommended bet is essentially my in-running strategy here. This game will only become very interesting if England have a bad start or a wobble – otherwise you’d have to expect things to be plain sailing. Jorfa Archer back definitely make their bowling better, so even if Scotland bat first England could be chasing a pretty low score. From a trading point of view, the ideal scenario is England bat first and struggle their way to 150 and then defend it. Otherwise I can only see a 1.01 train!
