Pakistan v Bangladesh
Cricket World Cup – 10.30 am
Sky Sports
Pakistan will be frustrated heading out in this game, their final fixture of the round robin in the 2019 Cricket World Cup. With England beating New Zealand on Wednesday, it means that the door was shut in the face of Pakistan’s semi final qualification hopes. They had needed the Kiwis to beat England. Mathematically Pakistan could still move up into the top four at the expense of New Zealand. However, the mathematics involved in them beating New Zealand on run rate is simply, astronomical. They would need to beat Bangladesh by around 300 runs.
Pakistan are the 1/2 favourites to finish their campaign with a win and they have been wonderfully entertaining. After a poor start with just one win from five games, they suddenly raced up through the gears and won three on the bounce beating South Africa, New Zealand and Afghanistan. But that poor start has come back to haunt them. Bangladesh were eliminated in a spirited defeat against India on Tuesday. So this is a dead rubber. But even though Bangladesh are 13/8 underdogs, they are capable of mixing it up. There’s no pressure on anyone in this game.
Morocco v Benin
Africa Cup of nations – 5.00 pm
Eurosport
This is the opening round of sixteen fixture from the Africa Cup of Nations. Morocco will be going as the clear favourites to take the match win and they are at 8/13 with leading bookmakers to collect the victory. So that is strong favouritism in their court then. They did win all three of their group stage games by a 1-0 scoreline, two of those wins coming inside the final two minutes of their games against Namibia and South Africa. So it wasn’t three comprehensive wins.
Benin were one of the best third-place finishers only after drawing all three games in Group F. Their last two were both 0-0 draws as well so the under 1.5 goals option at 5/4 may play on the minds of punters as one of the best bets of the day. Morocco haven’t conceded in any of their last five competitive games. So Benin, who are on a six match undefeated streak (W3 D3) may have their work cut out in trying to break down the favourites. Seven of Morocco’s last eight games have finished under that 2.5 goal line incidentally, so again, this may not be a goal-fest.
Uganda v Senegal
Africa Cup of Nations – 8.00 pm
Eurosport
It is an interesting match in the round of sixteen this one. Both Uganda and Senegal finished second in their respective groups. Uganda fell short against host nation Egypt in terms of the battle for top spot in Group A, but that was expected from the start. Uganda went W1 D1 L1 in their three group stage games, the defeat happening against the Egyptians. That loss against the tournament hosts is just their second defeat in their last thirteen games though. It also snapped a six-match undefeated streak of form that Uganda were on.
Senegal were up against Algeria for top spot in Group C. Those two met in the second round of action and Algeria claimed the 1-0 win to drive on to the group win. So that left Senegal to lock in second place which they did comfortably, winning their other two games. So they aren’t going to be too stressed about how they progressed. They are actually the 4/7 odds on favourites with leading bookies to get the win out of this one. Senegal have won eight of their last nine games (L1) and with star power like Liverpool’s Sadio Mane, they will be expected to beat the 7/1 underdogs.
