Ireland can shock while India to win easily at T20 World Cup

Although the T20 cricket rankings may be slightly false to have Ireland positioned higher than Australia at present, the two may prove relatively evenly matched.

Therefore, Ireland are way overpriced at 11/2 to secure victory in the Group B opener at the T20 World Cup, especially as Australia are as short as 1/9.

Ireland looked convincing in their final warm-up game with Bangladesh and Paul Sterling stole the show with 71 off just 41 balls.

In what will almost surely be his final tournament for Ireland, he will want to go out with a bang and the 7/4 on offer that he hits at least one six against Australia looks brilliant value.

India recently played Pakistan on the same Colombo pitch and scored 371 runs between them in a T20 game.

This suggests that some more big scores are for the offering and Australia are 5/6 to clear the boundary rope at least five times, which is more than possible given that they have David Warner, Shane Watson and Mike Hussey in their team.

India are 1/33 in the day’s other game to win their first Group C encounter with Afghanistan and it is unlikely that the Indians will want to hang around.

The match betting odds may be as good as unbackable, but the 5/6 on offer than India score over 6.5 runs in their first over should be snapped up with Virender Sehwag at the crease.

Meanwhile, punters prepared to take the risk that India bat first may find some value in the 9/1 that a century is scored in the match.

This clash arguably pits the biggest hitting batting unit against the weakest bowling outfit and India recently surpassed 180 on the same Colombo pitch against the much stronger Pakistan team.

This fact may also make 5/6 a price worth taking that India register at least six sixes against Afghanistan and it is not beyond the realms of possibility that this will be achieved in one over.

All odds and markets correct as of publication