Cricket World Cup - India v Australia

As far as the match outcome is cornered I’ll just sit and support my outright tournament bet on India. Playing Australia this soon will be a put off for many but from the outset India’s only strength was batting, and their results rested on whether they could use that strength enough to win.

Australia's progress in this World Cup was smooth at first - a comfortable win against Zimbabwe, a smashing one against New Zealand - and then uninspiring, when they laboured against Kenya and Canada. The loss to Pakistan shows that they’re not unbeatable in any way, but a worry for India is that they’ve got nowhere near the bowling that Australia boast.

Some parts of India’s performances have made them look like proper tournament favourites. Fantastic displays by Tendulkar and Sehwag have led to some wonderful shot taking, but India have the much maligned Zaheer Khan and Yuvraj Singh, whose wickets have prevented many embarrassments.

Shane Watson - Could be set for a good start

That said, the majority of their form hasn’t been good enough to win a world cup. Poor bowling on flat pitches let England back into the fold, while many collapses have turned sure games into thrillers and losses.

The match is essentially a coin toss. On one side you have India, who possess such devastating batting, and have the formidable home advantage. And then Australia, the pedigree side with the all-round strength to hurt any team and the killer fast bowlers backed up by experience. No side is perfect although there’d be no point in backing Australia having suggested India for the Tournament, and although I’d rather be with India, prices of 8/11 are too short and their collapses are too frequent; Against South Africa, India lost their last nine wickets for 29 runs; against England they lost their last seven for 33 and against West Indies the last seven went for 50.

If there’s one bet, it may be Australia to have the highest opening partnership. Brad Haddin and Shane Watson are two of the best ODI Batsmen around; And to add to that, their opening stands in this tournament have been (most recent first) have been 12, 183, 38, 133 and 61. India may have the best openers in the tournament but they were stopped at 9-1 and 8-1 by Ireland and the West Indies respectively; Good bowling like Australia’s can hurt them.

Advice

2 pts Australia to have highest opening partnership (11/10 Boylesports)