Canada vs Ireland T20 Predictions: 18/5 Sana stands out

It’s Canada v Ireland on Friday June 7 (15:30, Sky Sports Cricket) with both sides trying to stay alive in the tournament after opening day losses, knowing they’re now almost drinking in last-chance saloon.

James Pacheco thinks a Canada upset can’t be ruled out but the game’s stand-out wager is on a Canadian bowler whose stats trump his rivals and is available at a good price and our Cricket betting expert takes us through his Canada vs Ireland T20 World Cup Predictions...

Canada

Canada gave a good account of themselves in a defeat to rivals USA first up.

Some fine hitting from the likes of Navneet Dhaliwal (61), Nicholas Kirton (51) and Shreyas Movva (32), all with very healthy strike rates, helped to get them up to 194/5 and they traded as short-favourites when the USA lost a couple of early wickets.

But a failure to dismiss Andries Gous and Aaron Jones cost them and in the end it was all pretty comfortable for the men in red, white and blue. Veteran medium pacer Dilon Heyliger was the pick of the bowlers with 3/19 off three overs and though it probably won’t have made much of a difference to the end result, they should have let him bowl his fourth over.

They’re unlikely to make too many changes to the side that lost to the USA, especially given the XI who played in that game will now be familiar with conditions at Dallas.

Possible XI: Johnson, Dhaliwal, Singh, Kirton, Movva, Bajwa, Heyliger, Zafar, Dutta, Sana, Gordon.

Ireland

Many had marked their match against India as a possible upset but from very early on that looked pretty unlikely.

A combination of excellent short of a length bowling, decent catching, a treacherous two-paced pitch and some poor shot selection meant Ireland were all out for just 96. That they even passed 80 was thanks to some late hitting by Gareth Delany who top-scored with 26.

Still, Jasprit Bumrah and co would have been unplayable to plenty of other sides at the tournament and India are after all the tournament favourites, so let’s not be too harsh on Ireland. They’re a better side than the scorecard suggested.

Possible XI: Balbirnie, Stirling, Tucker, Tector, Campher, Dockrell, Delany, Adair, McCarthy, Little, White.

Pitch and conditions

This one is at Dallas again.

It looked a good wicket in that high-scoring USA v Canada match but a tricky one in the Netherlands’ laboured win over Nepal chasing just 106, with the Netherlands losing four wickets in the process.

So it’s hard to draw to many conclusions about how the pitch might play other than to say both teams will want to chase. Not just because chasers have won two from two here but also because it’s been an advantage to bowl first over the tournament as a whole.

Canada vs Ireland Odds

*Please click on the link above to be taken to the main Canada vs Ireland T20 World Cup market page on betfred.com (or app) for all the live betting prices on this match.

Canada are 3/1, Ireland are 2/9. That looks about right because there’s no doubt as to which side has more experience and the better players.

But another wicket with something in it could see Ireland not knowing what’s a good score batting first. And not knowing whether to stick and aim for 150, or twist and try to get up to 190. Either approach could end up being fraught with danger. If Canada chase and are still around 5/2 or 3/1 post-toss, it could be worth an interest. But remember: only if they bowl first.

Canada Top Bowler

It’s anyone’s guess as to how this pitch might play so it’s not worth spending too much time trying to speculate as to which type of bowler can have success here.

So instead, let’s look at the career records of the five bowlers who bowled at least two overs in that defeat to the USA. The first number is their strike rate in T20Is, the second is their number of wickets per T20I match, which is a similar metric, but not exactly the same. Remember that with the strike rate (average number of balls bowled per wicket), it’s a case of the lower, the better.

Heyliger- 17.7/ 40 off 37

Zafar- 18.4/ 43 off 39

Dutta- 19.0/25 off 25

Sana- 13.6/28 off 17

Gordon- 15.4/17 off 13

Interestingly, there’s not a huge amount to choose between most of them. But Kaleem Sana’s strike rate is fair bit better than the others and his wickets per match considerably better. At 18/5, it’s not worth over-thinking things too much.

Ireland Top Batsman

The top four in Ireland’s batting order – Paul Stirling, Andy Balbirnie, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker- are understandably the Top 4 in the betting with prices ranging between 11/4 and 18/5; so not much in it. Career stats suggest those prices are about right with none of them standing out.

Curtis Campher is normally a good investment in this market but 6/1 is short enough and may not get much of a bat down at five. Especially if Canada are bowled out cheaply and Ireland’s top order are left to chase down a below-par score. Best save our money for better opportunities.

Jamie Pacheco predominantly covers Cricket for us at Betfred Insights. You can check out his Cricket Betting Tips, along with those from the rest of the team, at our Cricket hub page...