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CLAIM NOWToss Winner - England won the toss and choose to bowl first
England won by 3 wickets
Ruthless Australia look to wrap up the series at the earliest opportunity in this T20I in Cardiff on Friday evening.
We are backing Australia to win!
Tournament: | Australia tour of England, 2024 |
Format: | t20 |
Venue: | Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom |
Toss Prediction: | To Bowl |
Weather: | 15.4°C|Sunny |
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Any cricket contest between England and Australia can not help but have some spotlight on it but if the truth be told this series is one which has the least to play for in a while. Indeed, the five ODIs which will follow, with the Champions Trophy in February next year, have more of a carrot for the players to perform towards considering there is no T20 World Cup until February 2026.
But the way Matthew Short and Travis Head went about their business in Southampton showed that Australia mean business in this series and they will have their eyes firmly trained on a 3-0 win at this stage.
The question is - do England have enough batting firepower in their side to level the series? Wednesday's showing would suggest not but with Welshman Phil Salt captaining his side in Cardiff, it would be an appropriate place for him to produce one of his match-winning knocks.
With captain Jos Buttler missing the series due to a calf injury, eyebrows were raised in the English media when it was announced that Jamie Overton would be his batting replacement - albeit batting at number seven. This was because although there were no questions that Overton is a strong hitter lower down the order he is hardly a like for like replacement.
And so it proved, with England bowled out for 151 when chasing 180 for victory and with Overton at seven and Jofra Archer at eight both at least one position too high for this level. The hosts will need their stand-in skipper, Phil Salt, along with Liam Livingstone who top scored at Southampton to produce the goods or else they will find themselves without enough runs once again.
After a poor start, England's bowlers fought back well in the first T20I and the likes of Archer, Adil Rashid, Livingstone and Saqib Mahmood will need to deliver once again with the lack of runs in the side.
Livingstone scored 37 runs in 27 balls in the 1st T20I. He showed glimpses of his old form and dominated Australian bowlers, while he was at the crease. We back Livingstone to come good in today's game and score over 18.5 runs.
Phil Salt (c) (wk), Will Jacks, Jordan Cox, Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell, Sam Curran, Jamie Overton, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Saqib Mahmood, Reece Topley
Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Jordan Cox, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Liam Livingstone, Saqib Mahmood, Adil Rashid, Philip Salt, Reece Topley, Jamie Overton
Australia brought their exciting brand of attacking white ball cricket down from Scotland and made mincemeat of England's bowling attack during the powerplay in Southampton on Wednesday!
With a top seven of very capable batters, the tourists will look to attack from the first ball and the evidence shows that one of Matthew Short, Travis Head, captain Mitchell Marsh or Josh Inglis will produce a big score in rapid time. Head hit 12 boundaries in the first T20I and in doing so hit the second half-century of his T20I career at a strike-rate of 250+.
It's not just with the bat where Australia have a strong group of players - in Josh Hazlewood and Adam Zampa they have two top class bowlers who have been delivering the goods in white ball cricket for many years. When you add in Sean Abbott as their leading wicket taker on this tour then you can see why they are doing so well!
The left hander has been in phenomenal form and in the last match he scored 59 runs in 23 balls and has three fifty plus scores in the last five innings. Given his recent form, we back Travis Head to score over 23.5 runs in today's match.
Matthew Short, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh (c), Josh Inglis (wk), Marcus Stoinis, Tim David, Cameron Green, Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
Cooper Connolly, Timothy David, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Travis Head, Jake Fraser McGurk, Josh Inglis, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa, Sean Abbott, Matthew Short
Wednesday's opening T20I was played under dark cloudy skies and with the temperatures rapidly falling from a peak of 12 degrees! It might be slightly more pleasant in Cardiff on Friday and no rain is threatening to interrupt the match. We expect the temperature to drop from 15 degrees to 12 degrees across this match.
Pitch Condition
Batting Conditions
Pace Bowling
Spin Bowling
With short straight boundaries at one end of the ground, care always needs to be taken by captains at Sophia Gardens when choosing which bowlers to go with at which batters. After a cool and damp summer, there is plenty of life in the pitch and whoever bats first will be looking to post a total of 170+ on Friday evening.
The average total match score in the last 5 T20 matches played at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff is 342 runs. It is an excellent batting where high scores are a norm. Both teams batters are in good form and expect another high scoring game where the total match score is expected to be over 341.5 runs.
With six of the nine T20Is in Cardiff being won by the team fielding first, we predict that both skippers will go out for the toss intending to choose to bowl first in this match.
Although England did a good job of slowing Australia down after a rapid start to the first T20I, they never really looked like winning the game. We think Australia have a stronger side and we are predicting another victory for the tourists in this second T20I.
We are backing Australia to win!
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