Sports Blog 07/09/2016: T20 Preview – England vs Pakistan, Wednesday 7th September 2016

Pakistan end their tour of England with a Twenty20 international at Old Trafford tonight.

After avoiding a 5-0 whitewash with a consolation victory in the final ODI, Pakistan will be keen to end the tour on a high. The hosts are strongly fancied to take victory however, quoted at 67.3-73.4 on the binary, with the tourists pitched at a lowly 26.6-32.3. England are quoted 17-25 over Pakistan on the supremacy market (1pt per run won by, 10 pts per wicket won by).

The opening pair of Jason Roy and Alex Hales has done plenty of damage to Pakistan this summer, and you feel that at least one of them will fire again this evening. Hales’ 171 in the ODI series set a new record for an English batsman in that format, and it would be no surprise were one of these two to set a new t20 record in the not too distant future. Jason Roy is 3/1 joint-favourite to top score for the hosts, with Hales only marginally bigger at 10/3. They both feature in England’s Joy of Six market (alongside Eoin Morgan) where 25pts are awarded for each 6 hit by the named trio. Our traders have pitched this at 84-92. The Pakistani equivalent market, consisting of Sharjeel Khan, Sarfraz Ahmed and Khalid Latif, is on offer at 62-70.



The new era of English cricket is perhaps summed up by Ben Stokes. An all-action cricketer with both bat and ball, Stokes is perhaps unsurprisingly pitched highest of all the player performance quotes (1pt per run, 10 pts per catch, 20 pts per wicket, 25pts per stumping) at 43-48. He is certainly coming into the game in form, arriving off the back of a personal best score in the ODI series. Pakistan have nobody in the Stokes mould, but their most all-round contributor is wicket-keeper batsman Sarfraz Ahmed. The pugnacious batsman was in fine form in the ODIs, and with the possibility of stumpings and catches behind the stumps his player performance quote of 38-42 may be of some interest.

‘Launch!’ is a new market that has been attracting plenty of interest since its recent introduction. The market comprises the top individual score by any one batsman in the match multiplied by the number of runs scored in the highest scoring over of the match. As you can imagine this is a lively and volatile market, and has certainly caught the imagination. For this game our traders have pitched ‘Launch!’ at 1350-1450, which with all the big hitters on display could see some action.

England have added extreme pace to their t20 side with the inclusion of Tymal Mills. Long-regarded as the quickest bowler in the country, Mills has got his opportunity now and will need to perform to stay in the selectors’ thoughts. Mills player performance is quoted at 25-29, which could look cheap if the Pakistan batsmen struggle to deal with his express pace. Pakistan’s most threatening quick Mohammed Amir is quoted at 26-30, which would certainly be of interest were he able to recreate his batting heroics in the ODI series!

International t20 games are always exciting, and this one should be no different. A sell-out crowd will be in attendance and as usual Spreadex will have the largest range of spread and fixed odds markets on offer throughout the game. The toss is scheduled for 6pm with play starting at 6:30, so stick with us for all the action!