England famously crushed India in the semi-finals of the last T20 World Cup. Can they repeat the trick in Thursday’s rematch? Andy Schooler takes a look at England v India in Georgetown on Thursday, with four recommendations for cricket punters.
T20 World Cup 2024: England v India
Venue: Providence Stadium, Georgetown, Guyana
Date/Time: Thursday June 27, 1530 BST
TV: Sky Sports Cricket and Main Event
A turning, low-bouncing surface is expected at Providence for Thursday’s second semi-final of the T20 World Cup. Unusually, the majority of overs at this ground have been bowled by spinners so it could well be the case that each side plays three spin bowlers. They certainly look the men to follow in the bowler markets and Kuldeep Yadav offers some value in the top India bowler one at 4.0.
England v India: Cool Kuldeep
He’s taken seven wickets in three games (2-3-2) since coming into the side, winning this market once. Yes, pacemen Arshdeep Singh and Jasprit Bumrah have been the players rewarding punters this tournament but both look short enough given the surface. During the Super 8s, Kuldeep turned the ball and showed good pace variation in those key middle overs which may well be crucial in this contest and should be backed.
Keeping the pitch in mind, it may also be worth throwing some small change at Shivam Dube in the top India batter market. He’s made 28+ in three of the last four games with his strike-rate climbing and is a player prepared to take on the spinners, as he did to devastating effect in the recent Indian Premier League. This probably isn’t the ideal surface for that to happen – the venue has seen an average of just 6.2 runs per over thus far – but a few big hits might be all it takes to win this and a price of 9.25 makes a small interest worthwhile.
England v India: King Kohli No More?
A pitch on which batting could be hard graft is probably not ideal right now for Virat Kohli, who is out of form having managed only 66 runs in six games at this tournament. The bookies clearly seem to going with the ‘class is permanent’ theory though, setting his total runs line at 27.5. Given what we’ve seen, the unders has to be the bet – Kohli has just one score above 27.5 so far and has been dismissed for four or fewer on four occasions.
Finally, under 15.5 match sixes also looks worth an interest. The make-ups at Providence in this market so far have been 7-6-1-10-7 and while many of the matches have featured a minnow, any lack of batting nous is obviously compensated for by the potential for the ‘better’ team to go big. Yet Afghanistan only managed five sixes in their total of 183 against USA, while there were only 10 maximums when the semi-final bound Afghans faced New Zealand.
In terms of the overall result, you have to feel the conditions suit India and they are the form team having won six out of six here (one match was washed out). They’ve improved as the tournament has progressed but concerns remain about England, who were well beaten by Australia early on and, having got themselves into a decent position, lost to South Africa in the Super 8s. England did famously win the sides’ last meeting – the 2022 T20 World Cup semi-final – by 10 wickets but, right now, India look the correct favourites with a price of 1.57 about right.
England v India: Thursday June 27 Best Bets
Kuldeep Yadav India top bowler @ 4.0 with Kwiff
Shivam Dube India top batter @ 9.25 with Kwiff
Virat Kohli total runs under 27.5 @ 1.8 with Kwiff
Total sixes under 15.5 @ 1.9 with Kwiff
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