Richard Mann previews the opening match of England’s T20 World Cup defence, when they take on Scotland in Bridgetown on Tuesday afternoon.
Cricket betting tips: England v Scotland T20 World Cup
0.5pts Chris Greaves top Scotland batsman at 25/1 (Betfred)
0.5pts Matt Watt top Scotland batsman at 40/1 (bet365, Betfred)
Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook
England get their T20 World Cup campaign underway against Scotland in Bridgetown on Tuesday, 3.30pm UK time.
The defending champions will begin as overwhelming favourites and though not available at the time of writing, it will be interesting to see if Paddy Power and Betfair Sportsbook offer winning margin betting, as they often do. In this case, the extreme victory margins for England would be worth considering.
That’s not meaning to be disrespectful to Scotland, but they were beaten by Ireland and Zimbabwe at the last T20 World Cup – though they did manage to beat a depleted West Indies in that tournament – and I think they’re up against it taking on a white-ball superpower like England. Losing heavily in their final warm-up match against Afghanistan just a few days ago wasn’t ideal preparation, either.
As for England, it’s hard not to be positive about their chances in the Caribbean. The likes of Phil Salt, Will Jacks and Harry Brook help bolster an intimidating batting line-up that looks a perfect fit for this format, while Jofra Archer and Mark Wood are both fully fit and might well be the fastest opening bowling duo in the entire competition.
Things feel like they are falling nicely into place for England to mount another bold T20 World Cup challenge.
As Paul Krishnamurty pointed out in his excellent guide to the World Cup grounds here, the Kensington Oval has become more batting-friendly in recent editions of the CPL, so England’s powerful batting unit could be capable of going very big first up. Should they bat first, England could easily surpass 220, 230 or even more.
In-running punters should keep that in mind, but for now, I’ll be having smalls plays on CHRIS GREAVES and MARK WATT in the top Scotland batsman market at 25/1 and 40/1 respectively.
The prospect of Archer and Wood doing early damage with the ball for England could open this market up and Greaves is a handy cricketer who has a couple of ODI fifties from the middle order to his name.
He has an average nudging 20 in this format, hardly earth shattering but confirming he can hold a bat and when he has made runs, they have often come when a rescue job has been required from the Scotland middle order.
I’ll chance him at the prices, with even more of a leap of faith needed with Watt, at first glance anyway.
But on closer inspection, Watt’s batting probably deserves more respect and that recent warm-up defeat to Afghanistan saw him top score from number eight with 34 from 25 balls.
He is capable and has a top score of 81* in the County Championship, along with a best of 47 in ODIs. He doesn’t die wondering, but he gives it a whack and can score 20 or 30 quickly when on a going day.
That may be all that is required here if England, as expected, run out comfortable winners.
Fingers crossed their dangerous pace attack can take Scotland’s top order with them – and set things up for the middle and lower order to come to the fore.
Preview published at 2155 BST on 02/06/24
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