Having scraped into the Super 8s at the T20 World Cup 2024, England face West Indies on Wednesday night – and Andy Schooler makes the hosts a cracking bet.
T20 World Cup 2024: England v West Indies
Venue: Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium, Gros Islet, St Lucia
Date/Time: Thursday June 20, 0130 BST
TV: Sky Sports Cricket and Main Event
Give England their dues, they recovered well in the group stage of the T20 World Cup. They struggled before the rain against Scotland and were well beaten by Australia, leaving them in a bit of a hole but they responded with resounding wins over Oman and Namibia to claim a place in the Super 8s.
T20 World Cup 2024: Windies Warming Up
Yet given the level of opposition in those last two matches, I find it hard to draw the conclusion that England should be favourites for this one. They struggled for 10 over against the Scots and didn’t really lay a glove on Australia, the only team close to the Windies in terms of quality that Jos Buttler’s men have played so far. They’ll need to produce their best performance of the tournament to beat a side who won four out of four in their pool – a much tougher one which also contained New Zealand and Afghanistan.
Notably, the hosts’ crushing win over the Afghans came here in St Lucia earlier this week when their power-hitting was to the fore as they racked up 218, with Nicolas Pooran making 98. While it’s been the bowlers’ tournament so far – the current strike rate is the lowest in competition history – the wicket here looks full of runs with first-innings scores of 218, 201 and 180 so far in the tournament. Go further back and you can add 199, 189, 141 and 196 to that list.
Perhaps that gives England more hope – their strength has long been making big runs – but West Indies have done that arguably better in recent times. Remember they won the sides’ T20I series back in December and I just can’t have them as underdogs in this contest – back them at 1.9. In the sub-markets, I’m expecting big runs with plenty of sixes hit – there have been 20, 17 and 16 in the three games on this ground so far.
T20 World Cup 2024: Spin to Win
However, the six markets are clued up – the total sixes line is set at 17.5 – so I’m going to turn to the ‘highest scoring over’. Here, the line is at 19.5 and going on the high side of that appeals. The Windies’ game with Afghanistan saw a bizarre over of 36 (and another of 24), while 24 was the ‘winner’ in Scotland v Australia.Sri Lanka and Netherlands fell just short with a best over of 19 but they were two of the weaker teams in terms of six-hitting ability, not a label you can apply in this contest.
Finally, I’m going to take a chance of Gudakesh Motie to be top Windies bowler. Spin has done well in St Lucia so far, both in terms of taking wickets and keeping the scoring rate down. Motie ticks both boxes too. He’s took seven wickets in the group stage and now has 2+ wickets in six of his last eight T20Is. His economy rate hasn’t been above 8.0 in any of those matches with his figure across that England series in December being 7.38 – there’s obvious potential for him to build pressure and frustrate the England big-hitters. Motie looks the market value at 4.7.
T20 World Cup 2024: Thursday June 20 Best Bets
West Indies to win @ 1.9 with Kwiff
Highest scoring over to be over 19.5 runs @ 1.75 with Kwiff
Gudakesh Motie to be top West Indies bowler @ 4.7 with Kwiff
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