THE EDGE: The Edge previews the India v England 1st T20 with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
India v England 1st T20
MATCH OVERVIEW:
A blockbuster T20 series begins on BETDAQ Betting Exchange this week as England begin their tour of India. These two sides always have a hectic schedule, India come into this off the back of a long tour of Australia where they lost a five Test series 3-1. England won in New Zealand in a Test series just before Christmas, but they have mainly had two sides for a while now – white and red ball. As the clock ticks down to the IPL which for some is the highlight of the year, this series will be the full focus of the cricketing world for the time being.
Both sides have superb batting line-ups. Full of young stars with no fear – it’s the time of the year in India that we might have a heavy dew, we should also have fresh wickets given the IPL is only around the corner, and who knows what type of scores we could see. These Indian stars won’t hold back heading into the IPL, and it’s also the start of the Brendon McCullum era in white ball cricket for England. He was confirmed in the role months ago, but this is his first tour where he’s actually leading the squad. He’s promised entertainment; he rarely misses with that in fairness! England have become the most watchable Test nations; one wonders what he will do to the white ball side!
The white ball side of things has definitely gone stale for England recently – they reached the top of the mountain winning the ODI and T20 World Cups but they’ve gone backwards since – their ODI record is terrible recently. This is the start of a very important tour – the ODI series might be more serious; we should be entertained with the T20 series!
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
We kick off the tour at Eden Gardens, and this has turned into a very high scoring venue. We can get a heavy dew here too; I would definitely bat second, and obviously depending on batting conditions, I wouldn’t be surprised to see 200 chased down here. We actually haven’t had an International T20 here since 2022, but judging by the IPL here the scores have only been getting bigger recently – we saw 261 chased down! 161/7 was chased inside 16 overs, and we also had scores like 223/6 (chased) and 222/6 (won by 1 run). The wicket slowed down at the end of the IPL, but we usually see very good batting conditions.
RECOMMENDED BET:
It’s the first game of the series so I wouldn’t be going into this game with big stakes. We have five T20’s and three ODI’s – we’re going to learn a lot as we go along here. India are the favourites at 1.69 but I do feel that’s a little shorter – I know England are usually slow starters on tours but I’m happy with a small bet on them at 2.4. I just think we’ll see a closer game than the odds suggest here with good batting conditions – I’d expect England to swing at everything as McCullum starts, and that could easily work given the short boundaries and likely flat wicket.
The Edge Says:
One point win England to beat India at 2.4 with Betdaq Betting Exchange
View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/IndEng1
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
The first thing to do here in-running is just confirm that we indeed have good batting conditions. We can get some seam movement here on a green wicket or excessive spin – I don’t see spin at this time in the season, but we basically just want to avoid that seam movement. Another huge thing to look for is dew – if that arrives you want to get on the chasing side usually, and we could see the last five overs in the first innings go for a lot of runs. In general, you want to be looking for trades on either batting side here – this isn’t a ground for the bowlers!
