Richard Mann provides his preview of Friday night's second T20I between England and Australia from Cardiff.
Cricket betting tips: England v Australia T20I
2pts Adam Zampa top Australia bowler at 100/30 (Paddy Power, Betfair Sportsbook)
Australia made the early running in their T20I series with England, winning the first match in Southampton in a contest that proved a thoroughly engrossing watch.
Even with both sides a long way from full strength and England in particular entering a rebuilding phase in terms of white-ball cricket, Wednesday’s encounter was a cracking contest played on a pretty good pitch.
England were left disappointed having bowled Australia out for 179, that after the tourists had blasted 86 in the powerplay, but the batting looks light without Jos Buttler and a few other experienced heads.
This might prove to be a theme of the series and Australia are again strong favourites (8/13) for the second meeting in Cardiff on Friday, 6.30pm, UK time.
We were with Australia’s powerplay runs on Wednesday and while Travis Head maintains in his hot streak, England will surely continue to leak runs with the new ball. Head blasted 59 from only 23 deliveries in Southampton, earning him the Man of the Match gong.
He’s 8/1 to repeat the dose on Friday, but evidence from The Hundred suggests this wasn’t always the easiest place to score quickly, though that was in contrast to earlier in the summer when plenty of big runs were scored on this ground, not least by Glamorgan was blasted 243-4 against Somerset here in July.
A clear weather forecast is usually another good pointer to runs, but I’m just not sure what to expect with The Hundred matches played here in mind, so I’ll be leaving the runs alone for now at least.
I do think a strong case can be made for ADAM ZAMPA in the top Australia bowler market, however,
Zampa is a high-class performer whose record in both white-ball formats is outstanding. In T20Is, Zampa now has 111 wickets to his name at an average of 21.44, with his economy rate down at 7.21.
Those are excellent numbers and his economy rate is particularly impressive for a wrist spinner who opposition teams have consistently struggled to score quickly against.
That was again the case with England on Wednesday, Zampa returning figures of 2-20 from his four overs despite Liam Livingstone and Sam Curran stitching together the only meaningful partnership in the innings from the middle order.
Sean Abbott’s three wickets just trumped Zampa in the top Australia bowler market on that occasion, but it’s worth sticking with the wrist spinner on Friday, betting strictly with firms that settle a tie in this market on the fewest runs conceded.
Zampa’s superior economy rate will always make him a firm favourite if this market is tied, something that worked so well with Jasprit Bumrah at the IPL earlier in the year. Zampa has the best T20I career economy rate of all the Australians in the current squad.
Paddy Power and Betfair Sportsbook both settle a tie in this market this way, so the fact they are also standout price on Zampa at 100/30 is even more appealing.
Posted at 1245 BST on 12/09/24
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