The first of the ICC Cricket World Cup semi finals takes place in Mumbai on Wednesday when outright favourites India take on New Zealand.
The winner of this semi final will take on the victor of Thursday's semi between South Africa and Australia. Let's take a look at BoyleSports outright prices to win the tournament.
India 0.87/1
Australia 32/10
South Africa 3.85/1
New Zealand 67/10
Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
India
India were foot perfect in the round robin stage, winning all 9 of their matches. They were the only side to go unbeaten and they finished 4 points clear of South Africa and Australia in the standings with New Zealand 8 points back in fourth.
India played just the one match in Mumbai, a crushing 302 run victory over Sri Lanka who were bowled out for just 55 with Shami taking 5 wickets.
India were last crowned champions in 2011 on home turf, they finished as runners up in 2003 and their first title came back in 1983.
Squads and Team News
This was how India lined up last time out.
Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj
Did not play: Prasidh Krishna, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan Kishan, Shardul Thakur
New Zealand
New Zealand started their tournament with 4 straight wins. That streak came to an end in a 4 wicket defeat to India and they went on to lose a thriller against Australia before also going down to South Africa and Pakistan.
That mean New Zealand were tasked with beating Sri Lanka in their final round robin match and they came out on top by 5 wickets bowling their opponents out for 171 and chasing it down in 23.2 overs.
None of New Zealand's round robin matches were staged at Mumbai.
New Zealand finished as runners up to Australia in 2015 and England in 2019.
Squads and Team News
This was how New Zealand lined up last time out.
Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Kane Williamson (c), Daryl Mitchell, Mark Chapman, Glenn Phillips, Tom Latham (wk), Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult
Did not play: Ish Sodhi, Kyle Jamieson, James Neesham, Will Young
Head to Head
Overall the teams have met 117 times with India winning 59 to New Zealand's 50 with 1 tie and 7 no results
India beat New Zealand by 4 wickets in Dharamsala in Match 21 restricting the Blacks Caps to 273 (all out) in 50 overs where Daryl Mitchell top scored with 130 and Ravindra made 75. Shami with 5/54 in his 10 overs was the pick of the Indian bowlers. Virat Kohli top scored with 95 in the chase which was completed in exactly 48 overs. Lockie Ferguson with 2/63 in 8 overs was top NZ wicket taker.
The teams met in a 3 match series in India in January this year and India won it 3-0.
In CWC 2019 these teams also met in the first semi final in Manchester and New Zealand won it by 18 runs but they went on to lose a thrilling final to England.
The Betting
India are currently trading at around 1/ 3 to win the game and New Zealand can be backed at around 5/2
Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
The Verdict
All the available evidence suggests India are going to be extremely hard to beat.
I'm looking to the exotics and having had some jot in the players sixes market I like the look of Shreyas Iyer's price and I'll also take the same player to score a 50 with Sportingbet.
Bets: To Score a 50, Iyer? Yes at 2/1 with Sportingbet
Total match sixes, S. Iyer over 0.5 at 1.73/1 with Sportingbet
Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
Discussion Forum
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