Sri Lanka take on Bangladesh and India go up against old rivals, Pakistan, in Sunday’s World Cup T20 action and we take a look at both games from a betting angle.
SRI LANKA V BANGLADESH
This match will be taking place at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium and both of these sides had to qualify for the Super-12 Stage of the Tournament.
These sides look pretty evenly matched and both sides probably have more faith in their bowling attack than their batting line-up. The Sharjah pitch tends to assist the bowlers as the ball doesn’t really come on to the bat well. Looking at head-to-head T20 matches between the sides, Sri Lanka has an edge winning 7 of the 11 matches, but more recently Bangladesh has clawed back and has won the last 2, although you have to go back a good few years to the last time they met in this format. This match is a tough one to call and as the betting suggests the teams should be really evenly matched.
BETTING – Click here to bet
Sri Lanka 10/11
Bangladesh 10/11
Suggested Bet: A 50 to be scored in the match, NO, at 7/2
I am expecting the bowling attack to dominate here and with my main betting focus for the day being on the India v Pakistan game this will hopefully give me a nice interest. I am not going to get involved in the Outright Market although for the record I think that Bangladesh will get the win.
INDIA v PAKISTAN
This match takes place in Dubai and looks a tricky encounter for Tournament favourites, India who are trading as 2/1 favourites to win the Tournament with Pakistan priced at 7/1.
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India haven't won the T20 World Cup since 2007 when they captured the inaugural event. They were runners up in the 2014 and went out in the semi-finals in 2016. India have looked the business in the warm ups with comfortable wins over England and Australia in the last week.
Virat Kohli is a 33/20 favourite to be their Top Batsman and Bumrah is the 9/4 favourite to be their Top Wicket Taker in the Tournament.
Pakistan won the T20 World Cup back in 2009, but it hasn’t been a happy hunting ground since then. They have been a mixed bag in the warm up games, beating the West Indies comfortably, but then going down to South Africa by 6 wickets despite running up a total of 186 and perhaps worryingly for them the Proteas managed to score 22 runs off the last over to win the match.
Afridi is the 12/5 favourite to be the Top Pakistan Bowler and Babar Azam is 11/10 to score the most runs for Pakistan in the Tournament.
These sides have surprisingly met just 8 times in T20 competitions with India winning 6, Pakistan 1 and there was also a tie.
BETTING – Click here to bet
India 8/15
Pakistan 31/20
Suggested Bet: Total Match Boundaries, over 37.5 at 17/20
Both teams are packed with talent in the batting department and I am expecting a game with plenty of runs and hopefully loads of boundaries.
Suggested Bet: Top Home Batsman, Rahul, at 28/10
He is a quality performer and critically comes in at the top of the order and will have plenty of time to build an innings.
Note: All prices correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
