The Cricket World Cup is underway and on Friday there is an interesting match taking place at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, where Pakistan take on the Netherlands (09:30). We’ve had a good look at this one and given you two value bets. 

Why is it every time we approach a major cricketing tournament, Pakistan (1/25) are a complete mystery to us would-be backers?

On one day the side look like world-beaters and are fully capable of winning this quadrennial event, however, at other times, they look a complete dogs-dinner and will struggle to make it to the semi-final knock-out stages.

Any side boasting the talent of number one ranked ODI batter in the world, Babar Azam, Imam Ul-Haq, as well as pace kings Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf, will be a fearsome prospect for any potential opponent.

At least here they look to have a relatively easy progression into the tournament, as they play the lowest-ranked side in the competition, in the Netherlands (11/1).

‘The Flying Dutchmen’ qualified in the place of full member states such as the West Indies, Ireland and Zimbabwe, so have already achieved more than their ranking suggests. This will be their fifth Cricket World Cup campaign and they have never made it out of the group stages.

Their warm-up hasn’t exactly gone to plan, with two washouts in their scheduled matches but they will be croaking to get this tournament underway and show they belong on the big-time cricketing stage.

Team news

Pakistan (probable):

Fakhar Zaman, Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Agha Salman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Haris Rauf

Netherlands (probable):

Vikramjit Singh, Max O’Dowd, Colin Ackerman, Bas de Leede, Teja Nidamanuru, Scott Edwards (c) (wk), Roelof van der Merwe, Logan Van Beek, Ryan Klein, Aryan Dutt, Paul van Meerken

Pakistan have won all six head-to-heads with the Netherlands and at 1/25 there is no value at all in the Match Odds market. With that in mind, I’ve taken an angle that throws up two potential match prop betting opportunities.

Shaheen Shah Afridi top PAK wicket taker – 11/4

Afridi is one of the most explosive bowlers in world cricket and has the capability to blow away any top order, let alone one as weak as the Netherlands.

In all previous matches between Pakistan and Holland, the openers have really struggled and early wickets have left the rest of the batting order exposed.

With Afridi on wickets that he is used to in the sub-continent, he will be bowling big in-swinging yorkers and we could see some wickets being obliterated early on.

The 23-year-old is also useful at the death too and averages under 23 at this format.

Colin Ackermann top NED run scorer – 9/2

The South African born player pledged his allegiance to the Dutch back in 2019 and is one of their classier performers.

Ackermann starred for Durham in their promotion from the County Championship second division this year and if there are early wickets, it will fall to the 32-year-old to lead the rebuild efforts.

With only seven ODI’s played for the Netherlands thus far, there isn’t a great deal of stats to fall back on, but Ackermann tops the batting averages for the side with 35.16 and a top score of 81.