India vs Netherlands Betting Tips

Back “No” on First Innings – Any Player to Score 50

If the Netherlands were to beat India here it would go down as the biggest upset in the history of the T20 World Cup.

Not only do we know that because of where the teams are ranked (India 1 Number 1 in the ICC rankings, Netherlands 17th) but also because the odds say so.

India are 1.04 and the Netherlands 16.0.

That tells you all you need to know and it’s one of those cases where the betting odds are actually a very fair assessment of the teams’ chances.

There’s no reason to think a cricketing miracle will happen in terms of a Netherlands win while trying to get bigger odds on India than what they are now is easier said than done.

But there may be a good solution in another market.

It’s 2.38 that no player scores a 50 in the first innings and that could be worth taking.

Of course, it would really help our cause if it’s the Netherlands batting first.

Plucky as they are, the Dutch batsmen will find it very hard to score runs against some of the world’s best bowlers, like Axar Patel, Ravi Ashwin and Bhuvi Kumar.

And they’ll find it even harder for one of them to get to 50 runs. So you can see why it would be a massive boost to our bet if the Dutch batted first.

But still. Even if India bat first, it’s not impossible that there are a few 30s and 40s without anyone getting to 50. Unlikely but possible.

But let’s hope India field first as that’s by far our best bet.

And if you haven’t read it already, here’s our BlueChip review.

India Recent Form

From a neutral point of view, you really couldn’t have hoped for a better match than India vs Pakistan.

Where do we start? India had Pakistan in trouble early on by dismissing their star-opening partnership of Azam and Rizwan.

Then Pakistan hit back with two players getting to 50, before India then took a flurry of wickets, only for some late hitting by the unlikely Shaheen Shah Afridi eventually got them to a par score of 159.

When batting, all of KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma and Sky Yadav got out cheaply, an India win was looking extremely unlikely.

But Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya put on a counter-attacking partnership that gave them a glimmer of hope.

And when Pandya was eventually dismissed for a well-made 40, it was over to Kohli.

Pakistan didn’t do themselves any favours with some wayward bowling and a no-ball at a crucial time but Kohli played one of the best T20 innings you’ll ever see.

He ended up with 82 off 53 which included four sixes. In the end it was Ravi Ashwin who hit the winning runs. But it was all Kohli.

So a wonderful game, a great win for India over their bitter rivals and a crucial two points towards qualifying for the semi-finals.

But it’s not all good.

There are worries about their opening partnership with Rahul and Sharma out of form and their death bowling continues to be a concern now that there’s no Jasprit Bumrah.

What does seem to be the case is that they seem to have finally settled on playing Dinesh Karthik rather than Rishabh Pant as the keeper and number 6 batsman.

It’s probably the right move to go with Karthik and a better move than going with both.

It means they have five specialist bowlers plus all-rounder Pandya, who took three wickets against Pakistan.

So if someone has a bad day with the ball, they have a little bit of room for manoeuvre.

Netherlands Recent Form

They lost to Bangladesh and know that may just have been their best chance of securing a win at this year’s World Cup, though they will admittedly get a second bite of the cherry when they play Zimbabwe in a few games’ time.

They made a good start to the game by taking early Bangladesh wickets but just couldn’t dismiss Afif Hossain soon enough, whose 38 off 27 to go with 20 off 12 from Mosaddek Hossain was ultimately the difference between the two sides.

And with the bat they showed some inexperience at this level.

Max O’Dowd, arguably their best batsman, was needlessly run out for eight.

And that was followed by Tom Cooper being run out without facing a single ball.

They were admittedly still in the game while Colin Ackerman was there.

He ended up scoring a super 62 and if he’d stayed around for a little longer, they may even have won.

That said, the margin (9 runs) was only that short because Number 11 batsman Paul van Meekeren scored an unlikely 24 off 14 including a big six.

They’re likely to be missing the highly experienced Roelof van der Merwe, who is injured.

Not that that would make a big difference here anyway.

India vs Netherlands Head-to-Head

There’s no India vs Netherlands head-to-head to speak of because these two sides have never played each other in a T20I.

The Netherlands very rarely play the biggest sides outside World Cups and it just so happened that they were never pitted in the same group together. So that’s why they’ve never faced each other.

Venue & conditions

We’re at the SCG for this one and if you want an idea of how this one might pan out, it’s worth noting that South Africa vs Bangladesh will be played here in Sydney earlier on in the day.

This is generally a pretty good wicket with 165 seen as roughly the par score, though of course New Zealand make a mockery of that by scoring 200 against Australia.

If India bat first, they could go big.

Players like Rahul, Sharma, Yadav and of course the in-form Kohli could be good for 70-80 runs each and they could come close to getting 190. So consider that when playing the first innings runs line market.

If it’s the Netherlands batting first it might be a very different story and they may struggle to get more than 135.

That said, there’s about a 40% chance of rain so a reduction in overs would obviously change all that in terms of possible first innings totals.