Cricket betting tips: England v New Zealand 1st ODI preview and best bets
Cricket betting tips: ODI, England v New Zealand
2pts Joe Root top England batsman at 7/2 (General)
The anchor has become something of a dirty word when it comes to limited-overs cricket, particularly in the T20 format, but for punters the role has lost none of its sex appeal and remains a very worthwhile betting strategy in 50-over cricket.
As data and sports analysts play a bigger and bigger role in team planning and strategy, and thus the focus on batsman strike-rates reaches fever pitch, there is a very real risk that we fail to appreciate those players who hold batting innings together and make it possible for teams to mount that late surge that takes them past 300 and sometimes towards something even bigger.
Root to play anchor role to perfection
The likes of Kane Williamson and Steve Smith might not be the poster boys of white-ball cricket anymore, but they do a mighty fine job, as does JOE ROOT who rates a solid bet for top England batsman when the hosts and New Zealand begin their four-match ODI series on Friday.
Root is now firmly established as one of the great batsmen of his generation, but there’s a fair argument to be made that the 50-over format might indeed be his best. Though his appearances in ODI cricket have been scaled back since England won the World Cup in 2019, in the main due to his commitments as Test captain in that time, Root’s record is outstanding, with over 6000 runs scored from 158 matches at an average of 50.05, with 16 hundreds.
With a strike-rate of 86.93, Root has developed into the master ODI anchor, while his more aggressive and powerful colleagues bat around him – and that is good news for those wanting to bet the bombproof 32-year-old in the tops markets.
Root carried out that job perfectly at the 2019 World Cup, finishing as England’s leading runscorer thanks to two hundred and three fifties, scoring a touch slower than the likes of Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy, but performing his role with aplomb and generally proving a solid bet in the process.
And there is even more to like about him in this series. Having gone on to dominate Test cricket in the four years since that World Cup, there is little doubting that Root has grown as a player, reaching even greater heights, and England will be excited to see him back in colours having shown up really well in The Hundred recently.
Form concerns weigh down England batting
Furthermore, Root is returning to a very different England team. Should Roy get the nod over Dawid Malan at the top of the order – and Malan himself stumbled through the recent T20I series – he will in the spotlight following a general downturn in his output over the last few years. It’s worth remembering that Roy was left out of last year’s successful T20 World Cup campaign owing to poor form.
Jos Buttler remains, of course, as does Ben Stokes who was retired from this format until only a couple of weeks ago, but the latter didn’t feature in The Hundred, while the likes of Moeen Ali and Liam Livingstone hardly impressed in the that competition or the subsequent T20s.
Harry Brook could well come into the XI at some stage in the series, but that seems unlikely to happen on Friday given he was left out of the provisional World Cup squad for India, so Root finds himself tasked with holding together a bruised batting line-up that finished the T20I series poorly. Bairstow is clearly playing well, as is Buttler, but this isn’t a particularly strong England batting unit compared to the last few years.
Given his method and the role he will adopt at number three, Root makes plenty of appeal and general quotes of 7/2 are very fair.
There is much to play for in the series itself, with both teams searching for a boost before the World Cup and in regard to England, individuals such as Roy and Livingstone desperate for runs before the plane departs for India. With Brook’s omission from the squad – and now likely return – the pressure on those individuals has been ramped up another notch in recent weeks and it will be interesting to see how they respond.
Watching brief with dangerous Phillips
With Kiwi talisman Williamson now confirmed fit for the World Cup, though not for this series, things appear less complicated for the tourists, for all working out their batting order is not particularly easy. The last time New Zealand played ODI cricket was in May when touring Pakistan, but Glenn Phillips and Daryl Mitchell were playing in the IPL at the time and it will be interesting to see where exactly that pair slot back in.
Having quickly become New Zealand’s main man in T20I cricket, reeling off scores of 41, 22, 69 and 42 in the recent drawn series with England, I’d like to see Phillips bat in the same number four position in this format.
A terrific player with immense power and the ability to manipulate the field well, there's no reason why Phillips can’t crack this format, but his record in 16 matches to date is modest, with only one fifty. My fear is that Phillips will be used as a finisher in this series and thus, I can’t advise a bet.
The closest I came to another selection was Matt Henry in the top New Zealand bowler market, but I was surprised he didn’t start the T20I series and like Phillips, I’ll take a watching brief as to where he fits into this side before making my move.
Posted at 1520 BST on 07/09/2023
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