ICC World Twenty20 - England to Dominate Dutch

England’s (-2500) first assignment of this year’s Twenty20 World Cup is an easy one against Netherlands (+900) at the home of cricket, Lords.

With a successful warm-up match under their belt, a nine wicket win over the West Indies, England will be confident of getting this tournament started in the best possible way.

Organisers could have certainly planned it better, giving England a tougher assignment however they were probably concerned that if England lose in the first match, fans might revolt against the host country.

But thankfully England treated their warm up match with some seriousness and restricted West Indies to 6/144.

Opener, 23-year-old Xavier Marshall, who represented the West Indies at the ICC Under/19 CWC 2004 scoring 331 runs at an average of 47.28, provided solidity at the top (35 off 33 balls) while several failures from more fancied and high profile players like Shiv Chanderpaul (0) and Dwayne Bravo (13) meant Ramnaresh Sarwan was called on late in the innings and stole the show scoring 46 off 34 balls with six boundaries.

The bowling honours were shared among the English with four bowlers taking a wicket each while there were two run outs.

In reply, England’s openers Ravi Bopara (60 off 35 balls) and Luke Wright (75no off 48 balls) eased the team to a nine-wicket win in the 15th over.

On that performance it is easy to see why the cricket betting odds are in favor of England to beat the Netherlands.

The Netherlands beat Scotland by seven wickets in their warm up match but not much can be taken from this battle of the minnows.