We have arrived! After a lengthy round robin competition, the ICC Cricket World Cup is finally reaching its climax, with two massive semi finals to be played this week! The first sees India take on New Zealand on Wednesday night and we have you covered with a full preview and betting tips below.
ICC Cricket World Cup: Semi Final Betting Tips
India vs New Zealand
Wankhede, Wednesday 7.30pm (AEDT)
India
The host nation has been perfect throughout the tournament so far, winning all nine of their round robin games, most of them in dominant fashion. They’ve been getting the job done with both bat and ball, boasting the tournament leading runscorer in Virat Kohli as well as the three of the top 10 wicket takers in Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ravi Jadeja.
They were far too good for the Netherlands in their last game, putting up a monster 410/4 batting first on the back of centuries from Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul. Following that, they bowled out the Dutch for just 250, using nine bowlers in an attempt to keep their bowling unit fresh for the semi finals.
India have bowled their opponents out for under 200 on five occasions during this tournament, and no team has made over 300 against them in nine matches. They opted for the three pronged spin attack in their very first game, but since then, they have gone with three frontline pacemen after all-roudner Hardik Pandya was ruled out of the tournament with injury.
Tough to see them making any changes to the line-up that has been so dominant throughout this tournament, especially lesser used batsmen in Iyer and Rahul both performing well in their last game.
Virat Kohli Top IND Runscorer ($3.75 at Ladbrokes)
India Predicted XI: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Ravi Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj
New Zealand
The Kiwis got off to a hot start in this World Cup but stumbled to the finish line, winning their last round robin game to secure a place in the semi-finals. After winning their first four games, they went on a four game losing streak, dropping games to the other three semi finalists in India, South Africa and Australia as well as a Duckworth-Lewis loss to Pakistan.
New Zealand bounced back in their last game, recording a solid win over Sri Lanka by five wickets. Bowling has been pretty strong throughout the tournament, but the Kiwis have relied too heavily on too few with the bat, as young star Rachin Ravindra and Daryl Mitchell have played somewhat lone hands in the NZ line-up.
The bowling unit has been led by Mitchell Santner, who has had a great tournament with 16 wickets at an impressive economy rate of just 4.81. Trent Boult will need to be at the top of his game come the semi-final as the frontline paceman of this NZ unit.
Daryl Mitchell Top NZ Runscorer ($5.00 at Ladbrokes)
Trent Boult 2+ Wickets ($2.00 at Ladbrokes)
New Zealand Predicted XI: Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Kane Williamson, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham, Glenn Phillips, Jimmy Neesham, Mitchel Santner, Lockie Ferguson, Tim Southee, Trent Boult
Betting Tips
Hard to look past the Indians here. They haven’t put a foot wrong all tournament and they have barely had to test their depth. I do fear that will come at a price though. They have been so dominant throughout the World Cup that they haven’t been tested in any pressure situations, which was largely their undoing when faced with this exact scenario four years ago.
India finished atop the table in 2019, winning seven of their nine round robin games, only to fall 18 runs short of a mediocre 239 run total by New Zealand in the semi final. That will certainly be haunting them in the lead up to this game but I think they are so much better prepared and their team is far better structured this time around.
The bowling unit looks so much better this time around with the three pronged pace attack and I think that will be the catalyst in punching their ticket into the final here. There's not much meat on the bone at just $1.30, so back them to win as well as hitting the most 4s and 6s.
India to win, most 4s, most 6s
$1.85
