England v Netherlands preview and best bets

Cricket betting tips: England v Netherlands

2pts Bas De Leede top Netherlands bowler at 4/1 (General)

England are out of the Cricket World Cup, their title defence falling apart as soon as it began, but Champions Trophy qualification is firmly on the line when they face the Netherlands in Pune on Wednesday, 8.30am, UK time.

The top seven finishers in the group stage, plus hosts Pakistan, will qualify for the Champions Trophy, which means England, currently lurching last of 10 in the table at the time of writing, and the Netherlands (seventh), will know this is a crucial game.

It certainly adds more interest to a match between two sides who won’t feature in the latter stages of this tournament, and it’s a clash I still expect England to win, despite their horror show in India so far.

Though losing their last two, I think there has been improvement from Jos Buttler’s side. Restricting India to 229-9 is beginning to look like an admirable effort, while they did a lot of things right against Australia on Saturday, eventually losing by 33 runs having worked themselves into strong positions in both innings, only to let those opportunities slip.

The bowling was a big problem even before the plane left the UK, but the batting has been a major flop, with only Dawid Malan averaging over 40 despite the favourable batting conditions we have seen throughout the tournament.

Betting England’s lower order at big prices didn’t come off against Australia – though Chris Woakes struck a fluent 32 – but the top order won’t have any excuses against the Dutch, and the likes of Malan (11/2) and Harry Brook (17/2), who will surely earn a recall, make appeal in the top match batsman market.

In truth, England’s batting unit should be lining up for a chance to make a big score against this bowling attack, having amassed 498 against the same opposition in 2022, so perhaps betting Malan and Brook to score big in-running might be the way to go.

For now, I’ll be backing BAS DE LEEDE to be top Netherlands bowler at 4/1.

On value grounds, the case is relatively straightforward. De Leede is currently the Netherlands’ leading wicket-taker at this World Cup with 11 wickets, just better than Logan van Beek and Paul van Meekeren who have both taken 10. De Leede’s strike-rate of 25.6 is superior to both, at 30.5 and 32.6 respectively.

He really should be favourite and if England get going with the bat, he can expect do plenty of bowling late in England’s batting innings, especially if they bat first.

De Leede can be expensive, but he takes wickets and knows plenty about this England side having played a fair amount of cricket across formats for Durham last summer.

Safer gambling

We are committed in our support of safer gambling.

Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.

If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCareon 0808 8020 133.

Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org