West Indies v England Prediction: All about Rovman and Romario in 3rd T20i

It's the third match of the T20I Series, at Gros Islet this time, on Wednesday evening at 20:00 with live broadcast on TNT Sports. 

Jamie Pacheco had a fine 16/5 winner last time out and is looking to build on that with Windies top bowler and batsmen bets as he takes us through his West Indies vs England Predictions for the 3rd T20i...

West Indies  

Twice the Windies have been guilty of not putting enough runs on the board batting first at Bridgetown, the 158 and 182 not proving nearly enough against good England batting performances. Still, save a thought for the fact they twice lost the toss and were twice put into bat. Had the flip gone their way and they may well have been 2-0 up themselves.  

The returning Nicholas Pooran (38) and Rovman Powell (43) top-scored with the bat in games one and two respectively and we were treated to an excellent cameo from Andre Russell (a late addition to the squad) in the first match with a whirlwind 30 off 17. Had he stuck around for a bit longer and it may have been quite a different story. 

Russell missed the second game through injury and news is thin on the ground as to whether he'll play here. He's currently not listed in the Betfred top bat and bowler markets but then again, he wasn't listed in the first match and played anyway. 

Alzarri Joseph may return after his two-match ban from his own Board for acts of indiscipline during last week's Third ODI. If he does, he'll probably replace the other Joseph, Shamar, who has struggled.   

Possible XI: King, Lewis, Pooran, Rutherford, Powell, Hetmyer, Russell/Chase, Hosein, Shepherd, Motie, Alzarri Joseph.  

England 

We didn't have a preview of the second match due to the quick turnaround in games so didn't get a chance to recap on the first.  

Phil Salt hit a superb century meaning his last scores against the West Indies in T20Is now read, earliest first: 109, 119 not out, 38, 87 not out, 103 not out and then 0 (!) on Sunday. Remarkable numbers for a man who wished he could bat against the Windies every day. Good for him and good for us as his century was more than enough to provide us a top bat winner at 16/5.  

And it could have been much better than that. 18/5 pick Adil Rashid took 3/32 which would normally have been a winner or at the very least a dead-heat, but Saqib Mahmood responded with 4-34. So a near miss but good to finish that first match in decent profit, nonetheless.  

In game two it was all about Jos Buttler, whose 83 was a timely reminder of what he's all about with crisp hits either side of the wicket. It will be interesting to see if he decides to carry on batting at three in this format, but he should at least for the remainder of this Series.  

Jofra Archer may sit this one out and possibly return for the fourth, with John Turner his likely replacement. Jamie Overton hasn't had much to do with either bat or ball but should keep his place.  

Possible XI: Salt, Jacks, Buttler, Livingstone, Bethell, Curran, Mousley, Overton, Mahmood, Rashid, Turner. 

Pitch and conditions  

We're at Gros Islet for this one, a venue that was used for 12 matches at this year's World Cup.  

Across the last four, the Windies were involved in two of those, beating Afghanistan and losing to England, who chased 181 with two overs to spare thanks to another Salt special.  

India passed 200 against Australia and beat them by 24 runs and prior to that, South Africa posted 163/6 against England, which they just about defended.  

180 looks about par batting first but neither side will feel too comfortable about defending that after the chaser has won so often across the two Series between these two, with 190 or so being a more realistic target first up.  

West Indies vs England 3rd T20 Odds

At 2-0 down, the hosts are 11/10 (implied probability of 47.6%) with England 8/11 (58%). That all sounds about right. Though England have been the better side so far, they did have the significant advantage of chasing in both games and there's a good chance that whoever gets to bat second here will go on to win the game. You can of course back the Windies at the bigger price and hope it's them chasing, but we'll swerve that option this time round.   

West Indies Top Bowler  

West Indies have mostly used just five bowlers this Series, so if you pick one of them, you can almost be sure that they'll bowl their four overs. But which one?  

There are questions marks about the two Josephs: Shamar (7/2) and Alzarri (not listed in the market anyway) so we'll give those two a miss while Akeal Hosein (14/5) hasn't been at his best these last two games, which is understandable given he hadn't played in over a month prior to the first T20I.  

The excellent Gudakesh Motie (14/5) hasn't got going either on pitches that you'd think would suit him while Roston Chase is of the five who will play, the most likely to not bowl his four overs; so that's a bit of concern. His price makes some appeal at 13/2, though.  

But the one to go with might be Romario Shepherd. He only played the last of the ODIs but returned 2/33 and followed that up with 1/45 and 2/42 in the T20Is, pretty good efforts. He has a very decent record against England with 11 wickets in 9 matches and has 53 in 48 T20Is, so is nothing but consistent. The 7/2 is good enough.