India vs Bangladesh Betting Prediction

Recommended Bet: Back Bangladesh Team with Highest Score after First Dismissal @ 2.56 with Blue Chip.

India are 1.15 with Bangladesh 5.6

You only need to look at the head-to-head between the two (10-1 to India) to see how easy India have found beating Bangladesh over the years.

And yes, Bangladesh have won two games so far this World Cup but they were against the easiest sides in the group and even then, they only ‘just’ won them.

So it’s certainly not worth taking a gamble on Bangladesh as outsiders and it’s unlikely our strategy of trying to get 1.5 on India in Live betting will pay off because Rohit Sharma’s men are unlikely to reach those odds.

But a good alternative to backing Bangladesh to win the match is to back them to the highest score after the first dismissal.

In other words: they’ll have more runs on the board when they lose their first wicket than India will.

The rationale is simple: in Taskin Ahmed, Bangladesh have an excellent opening bowler who will be up against two struggling batsmen in KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma.

Two of the best in the world but out of form and a little low on confidence.

It would be no surprise if one of them got out cheaply again, meaning if Bangladesh get to 15 or 20 before losing their first wicket, we could have a winner.

At odds of 2.54, it’s worth a gamble.

And if you haven’t read it already, here’s our BlueChip review.

Hardik Pandya to be India’s Top Bowler

If India carry on with their selection policy of only going in with five bowlers, then that means that Hardik Pandya will bowl his four overs just like he did in his first and third games.

So it becomes a five-horse race for India Top Bowler rather than a six or seven-horse race.

Pandya has been good so far with three wickets in his first match and one against South Africa on Sunday.

Only Arshdeep Singh with seven has more wickets than Pandya so far this World Cup and at odds of 6.2, Pandya is worth a bet.

India Recent Form

India are now two from three after losing to South Africa on Sunday.

Slightly bad news for India, good news for us as we backed South Africa to win at decent odds of 2.44. 

But it’s not something for India to worry about too much.

After beating Pakistan and getting their net run rate up thanks to a comfortable win over the Netherlands, they could just about afford to lose one match without compromising their passage to the semis and this was it.

So they lost, yes, never a good thing.

But there’s no need to panic.

Batting first, they posted just 133/9.

The in-form Virat Kohli, who had got plenty of runs in his first two matches, had a rare failure and was out for just 12 off 11.

Rohit Sharma was out for 15 and KL Rahul’s dry run continues, the Lucknow skipper gone for nine and with scores of just 4, 9 and 9 in this World Cup.

Rahul’s form will be a concern for India but they’re unlikely to drop him.

Once again the key man with the bat was Sky Yadav, quickly becoming India’s most reliable batsman of all.

A combination of aggressive hitting and sensible shot placement allied with good running saw him get to 68 off 40.

Had he stuck around for a few more balls, had India got to 145 or so, and the result could have been very different.

And to be fair to India, they made a good first of defending a low total.

Mohammad Shami, Bhuvi Kumar and Arshdeep Singh were extremely economical but they just didn’t have enough runs on the board to defend in the end, with SA getting home with two balls to spare.

Ravi Ashwin wasn’t at his best and conceded 43 runs. Had he been a bit more economical and SA may have started feeling the pressure.

They may consider bringing back one of Axar Patel or Yuzvendra Chahal for Ashwin.

Alternatively, all-rounder Deepak Hooda may be sacrificed for one of them.

Bangladesh Recent Form

Well, the Tigers have so far done what’s expected of them.

They’ve won their two matches where they went in as favourites (Netherlands and Zimbabwe) but lost the one they certainly weren’t expected to win, against South Africa.

An upset may well have been on the cards against a very competitive Zimbabwe on Sunday.

But to be fair to Bangladesh, they just about held their nerve in what was a frantic finish to the match.

Defending 150, the last over in Zimbabwe’s innings had a bit of everything with a six, four leg byes, two wickets and a no-ball caused by Bangladesh wicket-keeper Nurul Hasan smashing the stumps from in front, rather than behind.

After that no-ball was awarded off the last ball of the innings, Zimbabwe had one last chance to win the match with a four off the last ball, but it wasn’t to be.

So a bullet dodged but Bangladesh will be glad with their work so far and stay alive in the competition.

Against Zimbabwe, Taskin Ahmed was man-of-the-match for his 3-19 while Najmul Hossain Santo got the bulk of their runs with a well-made 71.

Shakib Al-Hasan, their skipper and superstar, hasn’t been quite at his best so far in this tournament but played his part in that win on Sunday.

He scored 23 off 20, was quite economical with the ball (albeit going wicketless) and most important of all, executed a brilliant run-out to dismiss the set Sean Williams just as Zimbabwe were threatening to get home.

Still, they’ll need more from him and the likes of senior players Litton Das and Mustafizur Rahaman if they’re to remain competitive against India here and then Pakistan.

India vs Bangladesh Head-to-Head

This India vs Bangladesh head-to-head doesn’t make for good reading if you’re a Bangladesh fan.

11 matches between the two has resulted in 10 wins for India and just the one for Bangladesh.

That solitary win for the Tigers came in 2019 in a home match as part of a 3-game Series where they chased 149 in the last over, mostly thanks to the now-retired Mushfiqur Rahim, who hit 60 off 43.

Interestingly, their big star, Shakib, didn’t feature in that match.

But it’s been all India other than that.

The Tigers will still have nightmares about the one that got away.

At the 2016 World Cup they should have beaten India and pretty much knocked them out on Indian soil.

But made a terrible mess of the last three balls and ended up losing by one run.

Venue & conditions

This will be only the second match so far we’ve had at the Adelaide Oval, the first being Netherlands vs Zimbabwe, played just a few hours before this one.

There have been five T20Is played here and interestingly, Australia lost the first three they ever played here.

One of those was against India in 2016, with Virat Kohli scoring a superb 90, so he’ll enjoy coming back here to Adelaide.

This could well be a high-scoring match.

In their last two games here, Australia got 233 and 187 though on both occasions, they were against Sri Lanka.

But in that match where Kohli shone, India got 188/3, further proof that big runs are on offer.

If India bat first, they could well get to 180 and that should be game over.

Bangladesh would probably prefer to bat first here given they’re not the best under pressure in a chase.

Zimbabwe vs Netherlands Winner Market

Recommended Bet: Back Zimbabwe to win @ 1.42 with BlueChip

Zimbabwe are 1.42 here with the Netherlands 2.85.

Those odds look absolutely correct, all things considered.

Zimbabwe are 3-1 up on the head-to-head and looked a considerably better side here in the World Cup.

They beat Pakistan against the odds and came perilously close to beating Bangladesh as outsiders, as well.

The Netherlands have quite frankly been battered in all three of their matches so far.

The best the Dutch can hope for is that it’s a tricky surface where the side who bowls best wins the game. But that’s not likely to be the case here in Adelaide.

Whereas they’re relatively well-matched when it comes to bowling, it’s very much advantage Zimbabwe with the bat.

If you want to try to get a bit bigger than the 1.42 on the Netherlands in Live Betting, you may well try to do so and it might be worth aiming for odds of about 1.7.

But 1.42 on Zimbabwe pre-match isn’t a bad bet at all given they look a stronger team all around.

And if you haven’t read it already, here’s our BlueChip review.

Zimbabwe Recent Form

The best cricket matches aren’t necessarily played between the best teams. And Zimbabwe vs Bangladesh was a good example of that.

Two of the less fashionable teams at the World Cup battled it out in an excellent match on Sunday that had a bit of everything, including a dramatic final over that included sixes from tail-enders, four leg byes, wickets and no-balls on technicalities.

In the end, Zimbabwe needed to hit the last ball of the innings (a free hit for that no-ball) for three to tie or four or six to win it but didn’t manage a run at all.

Chasing 150, Zimbabwe made a poor start in the chase (not for the first time) and only got so close because Sean Williams played a gem of an innings with 64 off 42.

Had he not been run out after some excellent fielding from Bangladesh’s Shakib Al-Hasan, they may have won in the end.

They may also have won had the superb Sikandar Raza not had a rare off day. He did take a wicket yet again but was more expensive than usual and was out for 0 with the bat.

Zimbabwe will have been left thinking about what may have been if they’d won here.

They would have been in second place and with Pakistan still playing South Africa, anything could have happened, and they may have made the semi-finals having been around the 100/1 mark to do so just a couple of weeks ago.

But still.

Progress to the semis is unlikely now but Zimbabwe have been excellent so far in this tournament and have achieved all that on minimum resources.

It would be a lovely story if 36-year-old Raza got a BBL or IPL contract on the back of his performances. But let’s wait and see.

Fast bowler Blessing Muzarabani is another who has impressed.

Netherlands Recent Form

Against Pakistan on Sunday, the Netherlands got a reminder (as if one was needed) that the standard at this level isn’t exactly what they’re used to throughout most of the year.

A ruthless Pakistan reduced them to just 91 runs off their 20 overs.

Only two Dutch batsmen got to double figures with Colin Ackerman scoring 27 and Scott Edwards 15.

Defending that total, they did well to claim Pakistani three wickets who were in a rush to get those runs and improve their net run rate.

They were actually pretty decent with the ball but then again, we’ve known that about them all along: they’re tight, accurate and disciplined when bowling.

And with all due respect, they lack a bit of class, muscle and sophistication with the bat.

One of the areas they need to improve on is rotating the strike a bit better.

Roelof van der Merwe returned for the last match after injury and should feature again here.

Zimbabwe vs Netherlands Head-to-Head

It’s 3-1 to Zimbabwe on the head-to-head.

Zimbabwe first won back in 2014 before they shared a Series 1-1 back in 2019.

And they also played earlier this year when Zimbabwe posted 132 and defended it quite easily in the end, the Dutch managing just 95.

One Zimbabwe player claimed four wickets in that match. It shouldn’t come as a big surprise to hear it was Raza.

Venue & conditions

This will be the first match of the tournament to be played in Adelaide.

The last few games here have been quite high-scoring affairs and the advantage generally goes to the team batting first here at the Adelaide Oval.

So that’s what we’d expect the captain winning the toss to do.

But the Netherlands rarely score many and going under 150 on the first innings runs line if they bat first could be a good strategy.

India vs South Africa Winner Prediction

Recommended Bet: Back South Africa to win @ 2.44 in live Betting with BlueChip

It’s true that India (well, Virat Kohli) showed huge nerves to get over the line against Pakistan and that they were ruthless against the Netherlands with both bat and ball.

But it’s also true that it wasn’t South Africa’s fault that their match against Zimbabwe was rained off when they were very much in a winning position. And they did the same sort of job on Bangladesh that India did on the Netherlands.

Yes, India have a good record against SA (13-9) and won four matches to South Africa’s three across the seven games they played against each other in 2022.

But it’s worth pointing out those seven games were in India and that there really hasn’t been much between these two sides, who look like two of the more competitive and better-balanced teams at this World Cup.

All of this means that if two sides are well-matched on paper, then it makes sense to go with the outsider in what is pretty close to a 50/50 game.

Which in this case, is South Africa.

And they’re not just marginal outsiders but 2.44 outsiders, which looks a pretty decent price indeed.

You could argue that with the absences of Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah for India, they’re not at their best with the ball, while SA have all their best bowlers available.

SA do of course have that Bavuma issue (see SA recent form) to deal with and if they do carry on playing him, it’s a negative.

But that alone won’t put us off going with SA at really attractive odds.

And if you haven’t read it already, here’s our BlueChip review.

India vs South Africa Hot Bet Prediction

Recommended Bet: Back Hardik Pandya to be India’s Top Batsman @ 10.5 with BlueChip

We’ve already seen that Perth isn’t the easiest venue for batting so far this World Cup.

There’s been extra bounce and swing available for the bowlers and SA have some pretty good ones in Rabada, Nortje and Parnell who can exploit those sorts of conditions.

So it’s not out of the question that SA could take a couple of early wickets with the out-of-form KL Rahul particularly vulnerable.

And that could mean the need for a rescue job by Hardik Pandya, batting at number five, especially if India are chasing a big score and have to be aggressive from the start.

Pandya has been a master at counter-attacking over the last year or so and odds of 10.5 about him top-scoring are just too good to not back him.

India Recent Form

Sometimes after a huge win under the utmost pressure, it’s easy to get complacent and take your foot off the pedal.

But there was no such thing in India’s match against the Netherlands after that last-gasp win over Pakistan on Sunday.

There were half-centuries for Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Sky Yadav, the latter the pick of the three given he scored his 51 off just 25 balls, at a much better strike rate than the others.

It goes a long way to explaining why he was man-of-the-match given that it was the innings that really meant that there were far too many runs for the Netherlands to chase.

With the ball, they were just as ruthless as they had been with the bat.

All of Arshdeep Singh, Ravi Ashwin, Axar Patel and Bhuvi Kumar helped themselves to two wickets each in a thoroughly professional display that the other favourites to win the World Cup will have taken note of.

India weren’t particularly fancied going into the tournament but the way they held their nerve against Pakistan and were so efficient against the Netherlands suggests they’re the team to beat at the moment.

Ravi Ashwin continues to justify his selection ahead of Yuzvendra Chahal and they may just play the same XI for the third match running.

South Africa Recent Form

After the massive disappointment of the no-result against Zimbabwe in a match that they had pretty much won before the rain came, there was no letting up against Bangladesh.

Yes, the Tigers are a poor side but the Proteas certainly weren’t in the mood to let things get tight in that one.

Quinton de Kock carried on from where he left off against Zimbabwe (a quickfire 47 off 18) with another no-nonsense 63 to suggest he;s in pretty good form.

That’s important for SA because as an opener and a senior batsman, they’re going to need him at his best.

But the stand-out innings was of course that of Riley Rossouw.

The man who only returned to the national side after spending years in the international wilderness as a Kolpak player hit the first and so far only century of the World Cup off just 56 balls, thanks to eight sixes and seven fours.

He’s another who SA will need to fire if they want to go deep in this tournament.

With the ball, Anrich Nortje took four wickets, Tabraiz Shamsi took three and they bowled really well as a unit. So the signs are good.

But the Temba Bavuma issue carries on.

His last scores in T20Is now read: 0, 0, 3, 2 and 2.

It’s stating the obvious to say that if he wasn’t captain he would have been dropped a long time ago.

But for the time being the selectors seem to be persisting with him and are somehow hoping he’ll come good sooner or later.

Let’s see if their show of faith is justified or ends up being a massive mistake.

India vs South Africa Head-to-Head

India are 13-9 up over the years in the head-to-head.

Interestingly, they played each other eight times already in 2022 so they know each other well.

There was a drawn Series (2-2) in June after the last match was washed out and in October India won 2-1 at home.

It was a match where that man Rossouw also scored a century (exactly 100 runs) so not only is he in form but he has good memories of playing India.

Venue & conditions

It’s been a real shame that what was looking like an excellent tournament has been affected by rain so much.

So far we’ve had four no-results after rain meant we couldn’t get a completed matches and a couple of others have also been affected, with extremely tricky conditions or rain-reduced games.

Thankfully, the signs are good for this one.

There’s ‘just’ a 20% chance of rain in Perth so at the very least we should get a completed match and we’re hoping to get the full 40 overs in.

Here at Perth so far this World Cup, Afghanistan managed just 112, Sri Lanka posted 157 and Zimbabwe scored 130 against Pakistan, which as we know, was enough to win the match by one run.

It could pay to go under 150 runs for the side batting first on the first innings runs line, given the wicket has been difficult to bat on and that these are two of the better bowling attacks.

Mohammad Wasim to be Pakistan’s Top Bowler

To an extent, we’re kicking ourselves for not having gone with Zimbabwe to beat Pakistan the other day.

Zimbabwe are a dangerous side and for whatever reason, if there’s one big team prone to big upsets, it’s Pakistan.

But then again, Zimbabwe were given just a 4% chance of winning the game with four balls to go, so you can see what an unexpected result it was on all levels.

This time round the Netherlands are 7.8 and here will be a few hoping lightning can strike twice.

But the Netherlands don’t have the same sort of weapons that Zimbabwe do for an upset and Pakistan are unlikely to have a third bad day at the office in a row, so we’ll give the big outsiders a miss.

If the Dutch win, good on them.

Instead, we’ll go with the man who was their top wicket-taker against Zimbabwe to keep up the good work.

Mohammad Wasim took four wickets in that match and looked in fine rhythm so it’s pretty surprising that he is available at such big odds of 6.4

To put that into context, that makes him almost twice the price of favourite Haris Rauf (3.85) and a considerably bigger price than the likes of Shaheen Shah Afridi (4.0) when he has a great chance.

So Wasim it is.

And if you haven’t read it already, here’s our BlueChip review.

Pakistan Recent Form

If Pakistan had played the second innings of their match against Zimbabwe 100 times, they would have expected to have won the game at least 95 of them.

But they didn’t.

There was another failure from the highly-rated opening duo of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, who seem to have lost form at just the wrong time.

For the second match running the very capable Shan Mahsood top-scored for them and appeared to be getting Pakistan home.

But he got out at just the wrong time, stumped off a wide ball, and they were always up against it after that.

All-rounder Mohammad Nawaz then looked like he might be Pakistan’s hero with the bat when he got to 22. But he also buckled under the pressure and was out with just one ball left.

And with Shaheen Shah Afridi on strike to face his first ball, he managed just one when they needed two for the tie and three for the win.

So plenty for Pakistan’s batters to answer for. But at least their bowlers look in decent form.

Mohammad Wasim took four wickets and was extremely economical and Shadab Khan was almost as good with three.

That loss was one that looks like it will really hurt them.

Their best bet is to hope that India beat South Africa and that they then play and beat South Africa themselves.

But even then, they’ll need to improve their net run rate drastically because of how easily SA beat Bangladesh.

The (only) good news is that because they lost both their matches by just one run their current net run rate isn’t bad but they’ll already have to think about winning this one comfortably if they’re to have any chance of progressing.

Netherlands Recent Form

The Netherlands are finding that beating Associate nations in the first round of the World Cup is one thing but that playing the very best in the world is quite another.

They missed a good chance to beat Bangladesh but were quite frankly, torn apart by a good Indian side.

They conceded 179 and came nowhere near chasing that, falling 56 runs short.

That their top-scorer Tim Pringle managed just 20 runs tells you all you need to know about what a struggle it was for them against the very best bowlers in the game.

Still, it’s worth remembering that these Dutch players are at best county pros in England and aren’t expected to be winning games such as these.

Roelof van der Merwe, one of those county pros, is still out injured and they miss his accurate spin bowling and sharp fielding.

Pakistan vs Netherlands Head-to-Head

These two have only ever played each other once and that was back in 2009 at the World Cup in England.

Pakistan posted 175 batting first and the Netherlands were all out for 93.

Venue & conditions

Thankfully the forecast is good for Perth on Sunday. At last.

We’ve already had four no results that have threatened to ruin the enjoyment of the World Cup. So it will be nice to not only have a match without rain but also one without the worry of rain.

Perth has been a tough wicket so far for all batsmen.

But Pakistan should finally have a good day with the at the third time of asking and should be able to get around 165 batting first.

If it’s the Netherlands going first, they may struggle to get past 135.

So it could be a good betting option to go with them to get less than that on the first innings runs line.

New Zealand vs Sri Lanka Betting: Winner Prediction

Recommended Bet: Back New Zealand to win @ 1.6 in live Betting with BlueChip

New Zealand are 1.39 with Sri Lanka at 3.05.

If you’ve been reading our previews of this World Cup, you can probably guess what’s the betting strategy here.

We have a favourite who we think will end up winning because they look stronger in every department and could well come close to winning the tournament as a whole.

If Sri Lanka had all their players available, they may have been worth a small gamble to upset the odds. But not with quite so many players missing.

So we’ll go with our strategy that paid off in Australia vs Sri Lanka.

We’ll hope that Sri Lanka start the game well or at least have one phase of it where they have the favourite under pressure.

And we’ll try to back the favourite (in this case New Zealand) at better odds in Live Betting.

This time our target is 1.6.

If the Black Caps reach that, back them. If not, leave it alone.

And if you haven’t read it already, here’s our BlueChip review.

New Zealand Recent Form

After the joy of beating Australia so comprehensively in their first match and putting themselves in a fantastic position to make the semis, there was the disappointment of their washed-out game against Afghanistan.

It’s a match New Zealand would have expected to win at least 8/10 times so they’ll see it as a missed opportunity.

England had already beaten Afghanistan and Australia are likely to beat them as well so the fact they had a no-result there can be viewed as one point lost.

Despite that superb win over Australia, there are still a few doubts about this New Zealand side.

In a high-scoring match where Finn Allen and Devon Conway had sky-high strike rates, Kane Williamson scored at a run-a-ball 23.

There will be times when a go-slow approach is needed on tricky wickets where 140-150 is par but in high-scoring games, it could cost them that he’s not naturally suited to scoring quickly.

But he’s the skipper so they’re unlikely to drop him.

Michael Bracewell came into the World Cup in superb form yet they decided to go with the more experienced Mitchell Santner as their second spinner against Australia.

As it happens, Santner had a really good game and bowled 3-31 in that match but let’s see if they decide to go with Bracewell this time.

The good news is that Daryl Mitchell is now fit to play after a broken finger.

He had a super World Cup last year, is experienced and provides them with an extra bowling option so the unfortunate Mark Chapman may have to give way.

Sri Lanka Recent Form

Sri Lanka will look back at their match against Australia as one they may well have won on another day. Or at least one they should have lost by a much smaller margin.

At one stage in Australia’s chase, they had them in trouble after dismissing David Warner and Mitch Marsh, with Glenn Maxwell soon following after a few boundaries.

But they let Marcus Stoinis get away and the big Melbourne Stars man went ballistic from that point onwards as he hit six after six to close the game in a hurry.

Part of the problem was that their star man Hasaranga de Silva had a rare bad day.

His three overs went for 53 runs in what was one of his most expensive returns ever in a T20I.

Had he bowled to his usual standard and it may have been a very different story.

But then again, every player is allowed a bad day at the office and this was his.

Earlier with the bat, Charith Asalanka was the best of a bad bunch with 38 off 25 to help Sri Lanka get close to something like a competitive score.

Pathum Nissanka fought hard for his 40 off 45 but just about every batsman found it hard going on the day.

But their problems are far greater than Hasaranga having a bad day with the ball and their batsmen not scoring quickly enough.

Their injuries just keep on mounting. In their last match, fast bowler Binura Fernando was the latest injury victim, pulling up after bowling just five deliveries.

It’s a real shame for Sri Lanka that their players keep on getting injured because they may have had a real chance of making the semis after other results went their way.

They may still make the semis but at the moment they’re the walking wounded.

New Zealand vs Sri Lanka Head-to-Head

These two have played each other 18 times with New Zealand currently 10-8 up so there really isn’t much in it.

Of those 10 wins, five were batting first and five were batting second so there’s been no real advantage to the Black Caps to doing one over the other.

It’s been all New Zealand over the last few years in this match.

They won a Series 2-0 back in 2016, a one-off match in 2019 and two of the three in a 3-match Series in Sri Lanka in 2019, the last time they played each other.

So that’s five of the last six that the Black Caps have won.

Venue & conditions

Thursday saw two matches played here at the SCG.

First South Africa posted 205/5 against Bangladesh and then India scored 179/2 against the Netherlands.

Both teams defended that easily, although they went in as heavy favourites so that was no more than what was expected of them.

Those first innings scores suggest this is a pretty good batting wicket.

New Zealand can probably be trusted to get close to 180 batting first given their batting looks solid and that Sri Lanka are missing so many important bowlers.

Sri Lanka, not so much.

This New Zealand attack looks good and varied and they all bowled extremely well against Australia.

So going under 150 runs may pay off if it’s Dasun Shanka’s team batting first.

The forecast is good for a change.

There’s only a 5% chance of rain so we should get a full game without interruptions or reduced overs.

Australia vs England Best Bet Prediction

Recommended Bet: Back Australia to win @ 1.81 with Blue Chip.

As you can see from the venue and conditions section at the bottom, rain is expected in Melbourne for the game.

It’s a shame that in a World Cup a few matches have already been affected, whether that’s a reduction of overs or complete washouts with no result.

But that’s cricket.

So the rain may arguably be the most important factor of all on the day so our job is to work out who might benefit best from it or a shortened game.

The answer is Australia.

If it’s reduced to say 10-12 overs a side, they’re the team who have more big hitters who can come in and score quick boundaries: Stoinis, Marsh, Wade, David, you name them.

England’s batsmen have found a bad time to be out of form and whereas the likes of Jos Buttler and Dawid Malan can sometimes take some time at the start and then accelerate at the end, they may not have the chance to do so here where it might have to be a case of bang, bang, bang.

Add to that the fact that Australia also have a better bowling attack in general and you can see why we’re keen on Australia here.

Yes, they’re favourites but they deserve to be and like we say, the rain may play into their hands, not those of England.

And if the rain doesn’t come?

Australia look a better side than England in most departments anyway over a full 40 overs from what we’ve seen so far, so we’d be happy if there isn’t any rain as well.

And if you haven’t read it already, here’s our BlueChip review.

Australia Recent Form

It’s no exaggeration to suggest this is the most important game of the tournament so far.

Yes, they don’t come any bigger than India v Pakistan, but that was the opening match for both sides, who then had a chance to recover if they lost.

For both England and Australia, with two matches under their belts, and a loss apiece in one of those two games, they’re quickly approaching do-or-die territory.

And it could have been even worse for Australia.

During their chase of a par score against Sri Lanka, they were going nowhere fast with opener David Warner out, Mitch Marsh soon following him after a couple of big hits and Aaron Finch struggling for rhythm.

At this stage Australia reached odds of around 1.6 in Live Betting, so if you’d followed our advice of backing Australia against Sri Lanka at any odds above 1.5 in-play, you would have secured a somewhat decent profit.

Of course, in the end they had man-of-the-match Marcus Stoinis to thank for not just winning the game but winning it extremely comfortably in the end.

Crucial in improving their net run rate.

His brutal 59 off 18 is right there as one of the most dominant displays of batting we’ve seen for a while and broke plenty of records in the process.

To put things into context: he hit 10 of the 18 balls he faced for either fours or sixes and took just 22 minutes to make that 58.

And that’s arguably Australia’s strength: that middle-order of Marsh, Maxwell, Stoinis, David and Wade is going to fire more often than not.

And if one of them doesn’t get you, one of the others generally will.

England’s defeat to Ireland has given Australia a decent chance of still qualifying from the group.

But defeat would probably mean the end of the road for them in a tournament where going into it they were defending champions, hosts and pre-tournament favourites.

Spinner Adam Zampa missed the win over Sri Lanka with Covid but as per ICC rules, is available to play here if Australia choose so.

And now keeper Matthew Wade got Covid.

He should be able to play anyway but with no reserve keeper in the side, it will have to be David Warner or Glenn Maxwell taking the gloves if Wade isn’t available after all.

England Recent Form

England couldn’t have picked a worse time to put in a really poor performance in a T20I in losing to Ireland.

It was at a World Cup, it was up against a team they were expected to beat and it’s put them in serious danger of not making the semis.

With favourites Australia losing to New Zealand, then New Zealand themselves suffering a washout against Afghanistan, the win that was expected of them against Ireland would have put Jos Buttler’s men in a really strong position.

But they conceded too many runs first up by bowling too wide, they lost early wickets at the top and only Moeen Ali was striking the ball well before the rain came, at a time when DLS had Ireland four runs ahead.

So the inquest will begin.

One of Ben Stokes or Harry Brook may well be left out to allow them to play another specialist bowler, who will probably be Chris Jordan.

With Ali and Liam Livingstone making contributions with either bat or ball, they don’t need that many all-rounders.

So it may be Stokes, badly out of form with the bat, who is sacrificed.

Like Australia, a loss for England would make it incredibly difficult for them to progress from here.

England vs Australia Head-to-Head

21 (completed) matches between these two have produced 11 wins for England and 10 for Australia, with two no results in there over the years.

England have won all of the last three completed matches between them: a comprehensive win at last year’s World Cup in the Group Stages, to go with back-to-back wins here in Australia earlier this month.

The third match was washed out.

Venue & conditions

First things first: what’s the rain situation like?

It’s bad.

There’s an estimated 90% chance of rain in Melbourne during the game so it’s the usual story: we may be really lucky and get a full game, we might get a severely shortened match or we might not get a result at all.

So with that in mind, it may not be worth discussing par scores over 20 overs so much because we’re unlikely to get 20 overs a side.

As ever, batting second is generally an advantage in rain-reduced affairs so if you don’t want to follow our betting tip on the match winner market, there are worse strategies than going for whichever team gets to chase.

Afghanistan vs Ireland Winner Prediction

Recommended Bet: Back Ireland to win @ 2.26 with BlueChip

Afghanistan are favourites to win the game at 1.65. That’s probably just about justified.

In the likes of Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Mohammad Nabi, they have top-class players who have featured in the likes of the IPL, Big Bash and CPL on a consistent basis over the years, proof that these guys are the real deal and that the best T20 franchises are prepared to pay the big bucks to get them on board.

Afghanistan are also slightly ahead of Ireland in the T20 ICC rankings; they’re 10th with Ireland 12th though admittedly, there isn’t much in it.

And despite the fact Ireland won the last Series between them, it’s the Asian side who are considerably ahead on the head-to-head.

So why are we going to back Ireland? The main reason is: conditions.

Ireland will have learnt a lot about where and how to bowl at the MCG (where this match is staged) and how to score their runs when batting from playing (and beating) England here.

Afghanistan will have had little or no experience of playing here at all over the years.

Given the conditions are likely to be wet and heavy because of expected rain, they will play into Ireland’s hands, not Afghanistan’s.

After all, those are the conditions the Irish are used to back home, not Mohammad Nabi’s men.

Afghanistan may also be a little undercooked. They’ve played just the one completed match so far, while Ireland will be playing their sixth match of the tournament so far.

So plenty of reasons to be siding with Ireland at 2.26.

And if you haven’t read it already, here’s our BlueChip review.

Afghanistan Recent Form

On the one hand, Afghanistan will be quite glad of a no result against New Zealand after heavy rain meant that not a single ball was bowled, leading to the second ‘no result’ in the competition after the same had happened in South Africa vs Zimbabwe.

Glad because they went into that match against New Zealand as big outsiders, especially after the Black Caps had been so impressive against Australia.

On the other hand, a loss and a no-result isn’t the best way of starting the Super 12 Stage and they may have been happier if they’d been allowed to take their chances against New Zealand if the rain hadn’t come.

At this moment in time they’re the outsiders of the lot to progress.

But with both England and New Zealand failing to win (no result for New Zealand, shock loss for England against Ireland), they’re not completely out of it.

But they will be if they fail to win here and they’ll probably need to improve their net run rate to stay in the hunt. And their best chance of doing so is right here.

In their match against England, Rashid Khan was out first ball trying to hit a six but we still maintain he should bat higher than his current position at number eight.

If he’s around for 10-15 balls he could easily race to 25-30 and that could make all the difference.

Let’s see if Afghanistan are reading this!

Ireland Recent Form

Some people may claim that Ireland were just very fortunate in their win over England on Wednesday.

That England would have got to the total eventually with a well-set Moeen Ali at the crease alongside Liam Livingstone.

Or that if they’d hit just one more six before the rain came, they would have narrowly won the game that way.

Quite possibly, but we’ll never know.

Here’s what we do know: Ireland batted extremely well to get to what was at least a par score and that they bowled pretty well, too.

To dismiss world-class batsmen like Jos Buttler, Alex Hales and Ben Stokes for 10 or less takes some doing.

And it was of course those early wickets that put England under pressure and behind the required run rate.

So that when the rain came, it was Ireland who were ahead on DLS.

And that’s precisely why they won the match when it was eventually called off.

In truth, Ireland are somewhat unlikely to make the semis unless they win here, pick up two more wins from their other three matches and hope other results go their way.

But they’ve already done extremely well to qualify from a tough Group two weeks ago and have already secured a win in the actual World Cup, against England no less.

Whatever happens from here, the likes of Paul Stirling, Curtis Campher, Andy Balbirnie, Josh Little and Mark Adair have played their parts and will surely be welcomed back home as heroes.

Afghanistan vs Ireland Head-to-Head

These two have certainly played a lot of cricket against each other over the years.

That’s not particularly surprising. Given neither team plays the Big Boys that often outside World Cups, Affiliate Teams do tend to play sides of a similar level quite often.

They’ve faced each other a huge 23 times which must be right up there with the number of times two teams have played each other in the T20I format.

And it’s very much advantageous to Afghanistan, who have won 16 and lost 7.

That includes winning five Series in a row between 2016 and 2020.

But Ireland hit back in August of this year to edge a 5-match Series 3-2 so will feel they can compete with them now better than in the past.

Venue & conditions

Ireland will be glad to being playing at the MCG in Melbourne once again, the venue for their historic win over England on Wednesday.

First things first: what’s the weather forecast?

It’s pretty bad.

There’s a 90% chance of some rain at some stage during the match, it will be extremely humid and there are also the possibility of thunderstorms.

In other words, we’re pretty likely to see a reduction in overs once again and we can’t discount the possibility of yet another no-result.

All of which makes trying to predict a first innings total extremely hard.

But here’s what we do know: despite the fact England lost to Ireland chasing, batting second is very much an advantage. So whoever chases, will have the early edge.

Haris Rauf to be Pakistan’s Top Bowler

Before we move onto our recommended bet, a moment for reflection. Here’s what we said ahead of England vs Ireland:

“The best scenario for them (Ireland) would be to have a rain-shortened match that was maybe 10-overs-a-side and hope that one of their batsmen can go big.

If that’s what happens and there’s a reduction in overs, then a small gamble on Ireland might be worth it.”

As we know, Ireland’s batsmen did go big, the rain did come and Ireland did end up winning!

So we were on the money in terms of the thinking, it was just a case that we didn’t go ahead with the bet. It happens and Ireland did of course ride their luck.

The lesson of course is that rain can even things up by making conditions very tricky and that a reduced game gives the outsider a better chance than usual.

But no two games of cricket are the same and it’s not worth backing the outsiders all the time and hoping for the heavens to open.

Especially when we can have a good idea of the weather forecast ourselves!

There was a high likelihood of rain ahead of that England game but it drops to just 5% for this match.

And in light of that, without the assistance of bad weather, Zimbabwe probably aren’t worth a gamble at 7.0.

So instead we’ll go with Haris Rauf being Pakistan’s Top Bowler.

His raw pace as one of the quickest bowlers in the competition is more likely to trouble Zimbabwe’s batsmen than the trickery of Shaheen Shah Afrid, the spin of Shadab Khan or even the accuracy of Naseem Shah.

So go with Rauf to be their top bowler on the day at a decent price of 3.6.

And if you haven’t read it already, here’s our BlueChip review.

Pakistan Recent Form

Pakistan will be feeling really sick about their loss to India on Sunday.

Having made a poor start, they recovered really well to post a par score of 159/8, thanks to fine fifties from Shan Masood and Iftikhar Ahmed.

Masood remained unbeaten but with a considerably better strike rate, it was Ahmed who actually played the better of the two knocks.

There was also some entertaining late-hitting from Shaheen Shah Afridi, of all people.

A huge six and a classy four got them to that decent total and if Afridi can carry on improving his batting, he’ll become an even better player. They may well need some more lower order runs from him in this tournament, too.

But Afridi didn’t have the best of days with the ball, going wicketless for a change, and that was a big contributing factor in why they ended up losing.

The most obvious reason of all is that they couldn’t get Virat Kohli out and ultimately paid the price.

But more to the point, they made mistakes at the death which is surprising because that’s normally an area where they’re generally pretty good.

First Haris Rauf conceded two sixes off the last two balls of his spell to Kohli, then Mohammad Nawaz, surprisingly bowling the last over of the match, was indisciplined.

He conceded two wides and a no-ball that went for six and there more than anywhere, is where the game was lost.

So bitter disappointment but all is not lost.

That was their toughest match of the Group stages and their net run rate won’t have taken any damage because of how tight the win was.

They’ve still got a very decent chance of progressing to the next round.

Zimbabwe Recent Form

To say Zimbabwe got fortunate against South Africa on Monday is a huge understatement.

South Africa absolutely raced to what was almost the total they needed after rain had reduced the match to 9 overs a side, which in fact was less than 9 overs for South Africa, who were given a revised total after several interruptions while they were batting.

But the rain kept coming back and with the cut-off point in the match approaching by the minute, in the end the game was called off before SA could get to that total.

And with that, Zimbabwe got a no-result and a point on the board.

They didn’t bowl particularly well in what were horrendous conditions and Quinton de Kock absolutely tore their bowling attack apart.

But where they do deserve credit is in the way Zimbabwe managed to get themselves to 79 off those nine overs.

Some late boundaries meant they had something to bowl at and more to the point, those extra 10 runs or so meant that in the end South Africa didn’t have time to get them.

Richard Nagarava slipped while fielding on the greasy surface and had to come off the field so we’ll have to wait and see if he’s ok to play.

Pakistan vs Zimbabwe Head-to-Head

Remarkably, these two have played each other 17 times in T20Is, which is quite a lot.

Less remarkably, the head-to-head record is 16-1 in favour of Pakistan.

But the one win they secured wasn’t so long ago. In a three-match Series in Zimbabwe last year, they won the second match. Defending just 118, they bowled Pakistan out for just 99.

Ryan Burl and Luke Jongwe had particularly good games with the ball in that one.

Venue & conditions

We’re at Perth for this one and so far we’ve had England vs Afghanistan and Australia vs Sri Lanka played here.

Both games saw batsmen struggle against good, disciplined bowling so this may not be the high-scoring match that Perth is usually known for.

Zimbabwe may struggle to get 140 batting first so consider that on the first innings runs line, while Pakistan may find Zimbabwe’s bowling and a tricky surface a challenge. But they should still get around 165 if they get to bat first.

165 or so first up should be more than enough if it’s Pakistan batting first and Zimbabwe will have a decent chance if they get to that score batting first themselves.