100-30 India are team to beat

IT may not be a competition for the purists, but for sheer thrills and spills cricket's Twenty20 World Cup takes some beating.

England is staging the latest renewal, which gets under way when the hosts take on Holland at Lord’s on Friday (5.30pm), but I would be surprised to see Paul Collingwood’s men involved in the latter stages of the competition.

That said, Twenty20 is so unpredictable and such a short contest that virtually anything is possible.

Except, of course, victory for the minnows – in this case Ireland, Holland and Scotland.

The competition has 12 teams split into four groups of three. Two from each group will go through to the Super Eights comprising two groups of four and two from each of those will reach the semi-finals. It all culminates in the final at Lord’s on June 21.

England, a stand-out 12-1 with Ladbrokes, have packed their side full of Twenty20 specialists and the likes of Ravi Bopara, Dimitri Mascarenhas and Eoin Morgan have plenty to offer alongside more established players such as Collingwood and Pietersen.

They should certainly come through a group which also includes Pakistan and Holland, but that’s as far as I expect them to go.

For betting purposes, I am ignoring Australia, Sri Lanka and the West Indies, simply because they are in the same group and one of them will have to exit.

The other three groups have a weak link, so that’s the direction I am heading in and the two stand-out bets in my book are reigning champions India and under-rated New Zealand. India are deserved favourites at 100-30 and are much the most likely winners.

They are the best team in the world at all forms of cricket, possess an abundance of matchwinners and have developed a ruthless streak which was missing for too long.

The likes of Virender Sehwag, Mahindra Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh can tear any attack to shreds, while a bowling battery containing R P Singh, Irfan Pathan and Harbhajan Singh will be difficult to hit around the park.

New Zealand, however, have beaten the Indians twice in Twenty20 matches this season and are too big at 9-1.

Brendan McCullum, Martin Guptill, Jesse Ryder, Jacob Oram and Ross Taylor are batsmen blessed with the ability to clear the boundary and in Daniel Vettori the Black Caps possess one of the best captains and spinners in world cricket.

For the top run-scorer and and wicket-taker, it seems logical to stick with Indian players so Yuvraj Singh and R P Singh can call the tune.

Yuvraj hit Stuart Broad for six sixes in an over in Durban two years ago and is the most destructive batsman in the world, while his namesake R P was leading wicket-taker in the recent Indian Premier League and is a specialist in this form of the game.


RECOMMENDATIONS: India to win World Twenty20, 100-30 (Sporting Bet, Blue Square), New Zealand to win, 9-1 (Blue Square), Yuvraj Singh to be top run scorer, 28-1 (Paddy Power), R P Singh to be top bowler, 25-1 (Ladbrokes).