T20 World Cup Super 12 preview: England fancied to make it two wins in a row

We’re into the meat of the T20 World Cup now with all teams having played their hand for the first time in the Super 12s. The action has been fast-paced as has become the norm in T20 cricket, but with New Zealand thrashing Australia in the opening game and India beating Pakistan on the final ball, there has already been plenty of drama.

Fans across the world will be hoping for more and here’s our look at a couple of the matches during the tournament’s second week.

England v Ireland

Things appear to be clicking into place nicely for England and they are very much one of the leading contenders for the trophy. They were expected to get past Afghanistan easily and they did so for the most part, with the bowlers, in particular, impressing. They were also outstanding in the field and the bowlers were brilliant too, in restricting their opponents to just 112. Sam Curran was the pick, recording figures of 5 for 10 and in doing so became the first Englishman to take an T20I five-for.

It was very much a performance of two halves, though, as they stumbled to the victory target with just 11 balls to spare. While the victory was the most important thing, England had a good chance to boost their net run rate – a factor that could prove crucial later on in the tournament. They only managed to clear the fence once, and they’ll need to do that with much more regularity if they want to compete with the world’s best further down the line.

They are still the overwhelming favourites against the Irish at 1/12.

Ireland (13/2) have already played four times at this year’s T20 World Cup having had to make it through the first round. They did that thanks to wins over Scotland and West Indies with the second of those being by an impressive nine wickets. They were thumped by Sri Lanka in their opening Super 12 and that perhaps shows where this side are.

They have, however, shocked many big nations on the world stage in the past, including England, so they do have pedigree.

Paul Stirling has been in good form recently and smashed a quickfire 66 not out against West Indies. If Ireland are to be competitive here, they’ll need him to fire again and he’s a boosted 4/1 to be his country’s top run-scorer. While for England Dawid Malan is another player who has been in good touch and has become Mr. Reliable for his side. He’s 3/1 to top the run charts.

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South Africa v Bangladesh

South Africa (1/5), quietly fancied by many to go well in this tournament, make their second appearance of the tournament against Bangladesh and they’ll be hoping the weather is in a better mood after their opener against Zimbabwe was abandoned. They did get some cricket in and they looked in decent nick with their potent bowling attacking looking sharp and as dangerous as ever. Any side that has Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi in it is going to be a real handful and you feel if South Africa are really going to challenge this time around they’ll need all three to stand up when it matters.

The same can be said of Quinton de Kock, who has shown how good he is at the top of the order on numerous occasions. He battered 47 off just 18 balls against Zimbabwe before the rain arrived and he will fancy his chances of going big again against the Bangladesh bowlers, particularly as the Australian pitches should really suit him. He’s 5/2 to be the Proteas’ top run-scorer.

They take on a Bangladesh side who bid to make it two from two in the tournament. They just about got past Netherlands in their Super 12 opener by nine runs thanks in no small part to Taskin Ahmed’s four-for which helped his side restrict the Dutch to just 135 in response to Bangladesh’s 144. He’s 3/1 to be Bangladesh’s top wicket taker this time around.

The Tigers (7/2) have some talented players in their ranks and are often competitive against the bigger nations, but can struggle to put it all together when the pressure is on. As such, consistency is something they struggle with and a recent thumping by Afghanistan during the World Cup warm-up matches, where they managed just 98 for 9 off their 20 overs, is evidence of such.

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