Our featured T20 World Cup Group 2 match on Sunday sees India clash with Pakistan in Dubai. India are the tournament's outright favourites but Pakistan could be upset material.
Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
India
Long term odds
To win the tournament 2/1 (favourites)
To reach the final 11/10
Top Indian batsmen in the tournament Kohli at 16/10
Top India bowler in the tournament Bumrah 23/10
T20 World Cup form
India beat Pakistan in the first ever World T20 final in South Africa in 2007. Since then their best finish came in Bangladesh in 2014 when they finished as runners up to Sri Lanka.
In the 2016 finals which India hosted they won 3 and lost 1 of their group matches and then lost a thrilling semi final to West Indies.
Recent Form
India were most impressive in the recent warm ups. On Monday they beat England by 7 wickets, chasing down a target of 189 for victory with an over to spare thanks to KL Rahul's 50 and an unbeaten 70 from Ishan Kishan. On Wednesday India beat Australia by 8 wickets with Rohit Sharma top scoring with 60 as they chased down 153 for victory in 17.5 overs.
Pakistan
Long term odds
To win the tournament 7/1
To reach the final 4/1
Top Pakistan batsmen in the tournament Babar Azam 11/10
Top Pakistan bowler in the tournament Shaheen Afridi 24/10
T20 World Cup form
After losing to India in 2007 Pakistan went one better in England in 2009, beating Sri Lanka in the final but they haven't made it to the last 2 since then. In the 2016 finals staged in India Pakistan won just 1 and lost 3 of their group matches and never threatened a semi final place.
Recent Form
Pakistan won their first warm up match against West Indies by 7 wickets, restricting their opponents to 130/7 and Azam 50 and Zaman 46 helped them get home in just 15.3 overs. On Wednesday Pakistan lost to South Africa by 6 wickets. Zaman top scored with 52 in their bat first total of 186/6 but the Proteas scored 22 off the final over to chase it down.
Head to Head
Overall the teams have met just 8 times with India winning 6 to Pakistan's 1 and there has been 1 tie
The most recent meeting came in the 2016 World Cup when India won a group stage match by 6 wickets.
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The Betting
India are currently trading at around 11/20 to win the game and Pakistan can be backed at around 15/10
India are 11/20 to hit the most 6's with Pakistan 2/1 and a tie is 13/2
The highest first 6 overs total market has India at 7/10 and Pakistan are 11/10
Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
The Verdict
India were terrific in the warm ups but to me they represent little value in the outright tournament winner market and also in this opening match. Pakistan at their best can give anyone a game, much will rely on their top 3 of Rizwan, Azam and Zaman and if any 2 of those fire this might not be as straight forward for India as the odds suggest.
I will focus on the top bat markets and whilst the likes of Azam and Kohli are the favourites my preference, at the prices, is for Fakhar Zaman and KL Rahul.
Bets: Top Pakistan Bat Fakhar Zaman at 4/1
Top India Bat KL Rahul at 28/10
Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
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