Arguably the biggest rivalry in all of cricket will get another installment on Saturday night as India take on Pakistan in the ICC Cricket World Cup. We have you covered with a preview and betting tips for the monster clash below.
ICC Cricket World Cup Betting Tips
India vs Pakistan
Narendra Modi Stadium, Saturday 7.30pm
India
The home nation have started the tournament well, capturing comfortable victories over Australia and Afghanistan to move to 2-0. Star batsmen Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli both look in great touch, with the latter sitting ninth on the runscorers leaderboard, notching up 140 runs without being dismissed yet.
India’s bowling has been outstanding as well. They kept the Aussies to just 199 runs in their opener as spinners Ravi Jadeja, Ravi Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav claimed six wickets between them. India have a great mix of bowlers which allows them to play either three spinners of three frontline seamers depending on the pitch and conditions.
Difficult to know exactly what formation the Indians will go for on Saturday night, although the team should look pretty set outside of the Ravi Ashwin/Shardul Thakur decision.
Virat Kohli Top IND Runscorer ($3.75 at Ladbrokes)
Predicted India XI: Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Sheryas Iyer, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Ravi Jadeja, Ashwin/Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
Pakistan
Pakistan have also started out their tournament 2-0, although they have had a slightly easier run with games against the Netherlands and Sri Lanka. In their opener, they posted 286 on the back of strong performances with the bat from Mohammed Rizwan and Saud Shakeel. Haris Rauf was the pick of the bowlers with 3/43 as Pakistan kept the Netherlands to just 205.
The Pakistani bowling wasn’t as solid in game two against Sri Lanka as they allowed 344. However, the form of Rizwan continued as he belted 131 off just 121 balls while Abdullah Shafique added a century of his own to see Pakistan chase down the big total with 10 balls remaining.
Shaheen Afridi 2+Wickets ($1.78 at Ladbrokes)
Predicted XI: Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf
Betting Tips
As it always is between these teams, the anticipation is at fever pitch, even more so given that both sides have started 2-0. The recent Asian Cup produced two matchups between the great rivals, the 1st of which ended in a washout after 48 overs had been bowled, while the 2nd game was a dominant victory for India.
India start as $1.40 favourites and I have to side with them at home here. Their bowling unit has looked really solid to start the tournament and as I mentioned above, they have the cattle to suit any conditions. The crowd will be raucous and completely in their favour here, back them to get the job done.
