Zimbabwe v India Second T20 Tips: Don't rule out Zims in the chase

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Thursday 23 July, 12:00
TV: Sky Sports

Zimbabwe v India second T20 team news

Zimbabwe suffered a beating in game one, losing by seven wickets inside 14 overs after their batters failed to adapt to a tricky Harare surface. A total of 125 was never likely to test India, even if they have been in rotten form.

The fear with Zimbabwe is always with the bat. And when Brian Bennett and Sikandar Raza contribute just four runs between them, they are never likely to get out of trouble. They made a decent fight of recovering from 64 for five with Wes Madhvere and Tadi Marumani knuckling down but the game was up.

In an effort to shore up batting Zimbabwe could afford to drop left-arm quick Newman Myamhuri and still have six bowling options. Innocent Kaia could bat at No 3.

Possible XI: Bennett, Curran, Kaia, Myers, Raza, Burl, Evans, Madhvere, Marumani, Ngrava, Muzarabani

India have snapped a six-game losing sequence, their worst ever run. They didn't break sweat in doing so. As a result it would be a surprise if they made changes to the XI.

They will have been heartened to see Vaibhav Sooryvanshi bring IPL form to T20i. The 15-year-old obviously felt at home on a ground where he did great damage for India U-19s. Now for some runs from fellow opener Abhishek Sharma.

At some stage India may rest a fast bowler with Yash Thakur coming in but two wickets apiece for Mayank Yadav and Prince Yadav should mean they go again.

Possible XI: Abhishek, Sooryavnshi, Ishan, Shreyas, Tilak, Dube, Rinku, Bishnoi, Prince, Mayank, Ashok

Zimbabwe v India second T20 pitch report

For the 14th first-innings in 28 matches at Harare Sports Club the score came in under 165. And for the 16 from the last 27 against established nations, Zimbabwe failed to bust 145. It is right to expect batting to be difficult again with the fast bowlers seemingly getting bounce and movement. Abhishek's eight-ball one may be also instructive.

The hosts have no choice but to try to reduce the ability gap with the wicket which has bowlers in the game. Zimbabwe's plan would have been to bowl fist and hope to make early inroads. It's the gamble they had to take on the toss and unfortunately it went India's way. Were Zimbabwe to bat first again playing unders on the Exchange for cheap lays at 120-130 could make sense. We don't expect this track to get any better any time soon.

We could also gamble on the toss by betting unders first-innings runs at 178.5 at 5/61.84. It would be a major boost if it turned out that Zimbabwe batted first again. But you also have the historic numbers on side if it is India. Not the worst wager in the world.

Zimbabwe v India second T20 match prediction

Zimbabwe have to be chasing on this ground against this opposition. There is a bias for the chaser if we strip out some of the recent games involving teams like Kenya and Namibia.

But the advice would be to trade the Zim price rather than aa straight bet on the match odds, particularly pre-toss as we don't see Zimbabwe winning against India's quality and the trend for the side bowling first.

The heavy defeat for Zimbabwe in game one has meant their price has drifted to 9.28/1 on the Betfair Exchange. We don't expect the market to react to the toss. If we use 9.08/1 as our starting point to back Zimbabwe batting second, we can plan for a small cut in their price. it's important not to be greedy so 6.05/1 would be the lay mark.

Add 50% to the back stake on the lay button and we should have profit all sides regardless of the outcome.

Zimbabwe v India first T20 player bets

Bennett came into game one with a 42% win rate on top bats. But it could be that this is a surface which India's attack is just too good for. If the ball is shaping the likes of Bennett could struggle to get their shots away.

Abhishek, for India, is also way overdue a win. The counter argument is that if the pitch is tricky 30-odd could win or, like Sooryavanshi, an outrageously quick innings. Bennet is 11/43.75 and Abhishek 10/34.33.

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