Couch Critic takes a look at the first One Day Internationals between West Indies and India which takes place in Guyana on Thursday 8th August.
Thursday August 8th, Guyana @ 15:30
SETTING THE SCENE
England and Australia well and truly got us over the post-Cricket World Cup haze with a bang this past week. Now we move on to 50 over cricket in the islands.
India have brought a strong squad to the Americas and had little trouble in cruising past the hosts in the T20 appetisers. Everyone seems to enjoy the style of their play as well as the spirit in which they always take the field but at some stage the promise that we’ve all seen glimpses of need to turn into results. A win or two over the powerful Indians will go a long way in showing that this current crop of Windies are indeed on an upward curve.
LET’S TALK TACTICS
At Providence we saw a relatively low scoring encounter and the issue for the Windies remained that they struggled to get enough runs on the board. Somehow the home side need to find a way to give their bowling attack something to work with. Can the Gayle and Hope bring some consistency on the scorecard?
India have an incredibly imposing top 3. Rohit Sharma, Dhawan and Kohli have all played match winning knocks on a multitude of occasions. For the men in maroon to have any chance of giving the Indians a scare they will need to strike early and get into the middle order of the visitors asap.
HOW I SEE IT PLAYING OUT
Kohli wasn’t in vintage form in the T20’s but did post a fifty in the last outing at this same ground. I expect the skipper to start the series strong.
The best leggy in the business at present should be back in action and I reckon Chahal will hit the ground running on a pitch that offers little for the seamers.
Neither Hetmeyer nor Lewis showed any form to speak of in the T20’s and the home side will rely heavily on the class act in their ranks – Shai Hope.
Lastly, it might not be the boldest of calls but if there is one thing this West Indian team do well it’s play an expansive, attacking game with the bat. Almost all their players are capable of launching a ball over the rope and as such I have to have a go at this market as well.
Best Bets with BETOLIMP:
Batsman to score a fifty – Kohli YES @ 1.83
Top India Bowler – YS Chahal @ 4.40
Top West Indies Batsman – S Hope @ 4.40
Most Match Sixes – West Indies @ 1.70
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change
Couch Critic
