Stats and Recent Form
The West Indies are fresh off their victory at home over Bangladesh, while Australia has had mixed results against South Africa. The last time these two teams played each other was in 2016, with the WI winning 2-1. WI will be fielding a relatively new side, with only six players from their World Cup squad being available for this tour. Aussies will be looking to take advantage and claim a few more points on board as they face off against WI in Brisbane tomorrow evening.
West Indies have been playing some scintillating cricket in recent weeks and it has shown up on their rankings as well with them climbing up to 9th place from their previous rank of 12th.
Pitch Conditions
The first match is being played at Bellerive Oval, Hobart. This venue is an international cricket ground with a capacity of 20,000 people. The pitch has a grass covering and there will be no toss; both teams will bat to get their chance to bat on the wicket. The weather forecast for Saturday is cloudy with a high chance of rain in the morning and evening but then clearing up later on in the day. It looks like it will start as overcast during the morning session before getting much better in the afternoon. However, that does not mean that we can expect this match to go on without interruption. There could still be interruptions from rain throughout the game, so we’ll just have to wait and see how it goes.
Weather Report
The forecast for Hobart today is a high of 14 degrees Celsius and a low of 10 degrees. There’s a 40 percent chance of rain, so be prepared! The wind speed is 13 km/h with gusts up to 20 km/h. The UV index will be 2 or low. We can expect clear skies all day with some haze.
Mitch Marsh will be absent from this series due to injury, but we still have plenty of depth in the batting order without him. Marcus Stoinis was a late call-up after Glenn Maxwell withdrew due to injury and he’ll open alongside Aaron Finch while Alex Carey is expected to keep wicket again behind the stumps. As always with Australian cricket matches, there are many tickets available – you can get your tickets here (link).
The Windies come into this match on fire following their 3-0 win over England in the Test series, but they’re yet to play an ODI on tour and their last match against Sri Lanka ended in defeat by 8 wickets in Colombo last week.
Key Players to Watch Out For
The key players to watch out for in this series are Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Jason Behrendorff and Pat Cummins. These four players have had success in the past and will be looking to replicate that success against a formidable WI side. Smith has been in good form so far in this series with scores of 49, 71, and 61 to his name. However, his last score of 3 is a worry considering he is batting at number 3, which is usually reserved for someone who can accelerate runs quickly on crucial occasions.
Final Word
The first match of this series is going to be an intriguing one. The Windies are in a transition phase and they have some exciting players who are finally starting to make a mark on this international scene. However, the Aussies will be no pushover and they have an abundance of talent that will not fear to come out swinging against their Caribbean opponents.
We think that these two sides are more or less on par with each other and as such, it would not surprise us if both teams were to win this game – but we’re going to give our Cricket Betting Tips for the Aussies at odds of 1/2. It’s important to note that the WI Cricket Team does not usually perform well when playing outside of home soil, which makes this situation even more fascinating for cricket betting purposes. For anyone looking for them takes a look at what wibet has to offer.
