Our Zimbabwe vs India betting tips are up next ahead of the 2nd ODI at Harare on Saturday, August 20, with a start time of 12.45 pm IST.
India won the 1st ODI extremely comfortably and I’ve prepared some online cricket betting tips ahead of the second, so let’s try to make some money from the game, in addition to enjoying the action!
My cricket betting tips are up next and we have a spoiler alert: this time round I’m not recommending a bet on the winner market at today’s 2nd ODI betting odds.
There are good reasons for that and I’ll talk you through them. But that’s not to say we don’t have other cricket tips!
We have tips on the opening partnership market, the toss winner and a third bet on Zimbabwe’s star man getting to 50. Can you guess who it is?
What can you do when online betting odds for a team is just 1.04 to win a match? Well, you could consider backing the outsider at massive odds of 9.5 and hope for a miracle.
But it would be just that: a miracle.
India are in a different league in terms of ability to Zimbabwe and the way they won the first match reflects that. As do the odds ahead of this game.
In situations like this, I often look to back the heavy favourite at better odds in Live Betting if they make a poor start.
But in this case, we’d be pretty lucky if India even reach 1.2 in Live Betting.
So we’re going to have to open an exception and not suggest a bet on the winner market at all because there’s no bet or strategy worth pursuing.
Instead, we’ll take a punt on Zimbabwe having the better opening partnership at odds of 3.25.
It only takes one ball for a wicket and this could be their best chance of an upset, of sorts.
Here’s our Betway review, by the way. Find out why we think this is a top site and one we recommend to all our readers.
Sikandar Raza stands out like a sore thumb in this Zimbabwean side as we discuss below. He’s the only genuine class act.
Never was that more apparent than when he scored 117 not out and 135 not out against Bangladesh, on both occasions guiding his team to victory, on both occasions being the man-of-the-match.
As it happens, he missed out in the first game, only managing 12. But if one Zimbabwe player is going to get to 50, it’s him.
And odds of 3.8 on him doing so at Pure Win are pretty decent.
Zimbabwe are fresh from an excellent 2-1 series win against Bangladesh last month.
A win over Bangladesh may not sound like much but the Tigers are always very competitive in that format and this is by no means a vintage Zimbabwe side so they deserve plenty of credit for that.
But if beating Bangladesh was possible, taking the step up and being competitive against India is a very different story.
And so it proved on Thursday, with the hosts posting just 189 and being bowled out in 40 overs.
India’s chase was as easy as it gets in ODI cricket, not losing a single wicket.
Put simply, the Zimbabwe team is low on quality. Perhaps only Sikanda Raza would get into other strong ODI sides from the current crop.
Zimbabwe’s Likely XI
Regis Chakabva (C), Tarisai Musakandal, Innocent Kaia, Wessly Madhevere, Sikandar Raza, Luke Jongwe, Milton Shumba, Ryan Burl, Victor Nyauchi, Richard Ngarava, Wellington Masakadza.
India’s Recent Form
Despite chopping and changing the team to manage workloads, India have been excellent in ODI cricket over the past few weeks.
They beat England 2-1 and the West Indies 3-0 and both of those Series were away.
What’s really impressive about them is their strength in depth. The side they fielded against Zimbabwe on Thursday was very different to the one they had in previous recent series.
For example, Deepak Chahar was playing his first international game since February as a result of injury. He ended up man-of-the-match after taking 3-27.
The likes of Chahar, Axar Patel and Shubman Gill (82 not out) are putting serious pressure on the established stars like Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Yuzvendra Chahal and that can only be a good thing for India.
They may well field the same XI again, unless Ruturaj Gaikwad or Rahul Tripathi are brought in with Shikhar Dhawan rested.
Let’s look at the Zimbabwe vs India head-to-head ahead of this match.
In 64 matches between the two, India have won 52 of them with 10 wins for Zimbabwe and two ties thrown in there, as well.
India have now won the last 13 in a row and you’d have to go back to 2010 for the last time Zimbabwe beat them, a match in Harare where the hosts chased just 195 to win.
Venue & conditions
And Harare is where we are again for this one. Just like we were for the first match.
And it’s also where Zimbabwe played all three matches against Bangladesh recently.
All of those were high-scoring and in two of them, Zimbabwe successfully chased big totals.
So the conclusion must be that this is a far better wicket than the small total the hosts posted in the first game suggest. Just look at how easily India got home.
Quite simply, India have a strong bowling attack and Zimbabwe a weak batting line-up.
So if the hosts at first again, they may not get to 230. But if it’s India batting first, you’d think that 330 is perfectly manageable. So bear that in mind on the first innings runs line.
