Blog

Nothing from me yesterday as I was stuck in the countryside without any data connections which meant I also missed out on England's comprehensive victory over Pakistan. I continue to think this Bridgetown pitch has plenty of runs in it and should provide good entertainment for the rest of the tournament.

First up today is a potential practice run for the final with Australia and India squaring up. They are definitely the strongest batting sides in the tournament but I think that the pace of Nannes, Tait and Johnson (if he plays) gives Australia the edge over India in Barbados. Despite this I like India to score over 157.5 runs (CricketBetLive) as they should be able to take advantage of Ryan Harris and 8 overs from some combination of Watson, Clarke, White, Hussey & Smith. The loss of Praveen Kumar is another big blow to India and with the pace of the Bridgetown pitch they will need call-up Umesh Yadav to be on form straight away once he arrives.

The second match is West Indies versus Sri Lanka. This should be another evenly balanced game but with Sri Lanka leaning so heavily on Jayawardene in the tournament so far if he doesn't fire they will really struggle. It may turn out to be one of those games where the side whose bowlers exceed current low expectations are able to sneak out the victory. I think West Indies will probably manage it (absent of Jayawardene scoring another ton) but there is only one bet for this game that matters and that is SHORT DILSHAN'S RUN TOTAL.  The line is down to 17.5 on CricketBetLive but I'm sticking to my guns on this until he makes a score.

Finally, I've decided to take some tips from proven experts in the form of Hutch, Jrod and GoodCricketWicket. They are the current top three in the TestMatchSofa league on SportGuru and have all picked Australia and West Indies victories today.  The accumulator is available at 3/1 on Betfair so I've had a shot at that. Favourite pick remains shorting Dilshan. Good luck all.