New Zealand v England: Hamilton to host second slog-fest

England can wrap up the T20I series with a win in Hamilton after their commanding victory in the opening game.

They’re priced very short at 8/13 off the back of this commanding performance, with the hosts’ chances looking slim to say the least at 5/4. Better prices than either of these, however, come in the team sixes market.

The six-hitting spectacular that the Eden Park crowd were served up could just as easily be replicated in the second match of the series as the notoriously small boundaries in Auckland aren’t much bigger at Seddon Park.

England cashed in with 15 maximums last time out and they should be able to easily surpass the 6.5 mark when they next face the Kiwis. A price of 1/1 says that they will and this simply has to be backed. New Zealand, who struggled to get out of the blocks with the bat last time, still managed eight of their own and for them to clear the boundary over 6.5 times in game two pays reasonably at 8/11.

Despite the Three Lions’ clear superiority, explosive hitters like Brendan McCullum are the reason behind the hosts’ shorter price in this particular market and, if he gets going out in the middle, New Zealand are well in with a shout. He’s available to back at 10/3 to bag a half century, though the 5/6 on offer for him to record over 20.5 runs is a much safer selection.

Stuart Broad continued his good form since his brief lay-off from the England set up by taking four wickets at a run a ball in Auckland. That total combines with his six in the warm-up encounters to give him 10 T20 wickets on the tour thus far. As we correctly predicted last time, his price to take over 1.5 wickets offered fantastic value and those who agreed were duly rewarded; a price of 7/4 is on offer for him to repeat the feat here and, again, this looks too good a price to refuse.

In addition to these little gems, Ladbrokes are offering to refund any losing, pre-match top runscorer and player runs punts, as well as in-play player runs bets, if your selection is run out.

With this insurance policy in place, backing Jonny Bairstow to be the highest scorer of the England innings could prove profitable at 6/1. He was the third-highest contributor with the bat last time making him a worthy selection at this price.

All odds and markets accurate as of publication’s time and date