After notching up a rather convincing win over Ireland in their first game, West Indies will play England in the eighth game of the ICC World T20 at Providence Stadium in Guyana.

Looking at the two sides, there is nothing much to choose from, but West Indies need their best batsman, Chris Gayle, and arguably, their best bowler, Sulieman Benn to recover from their injuries. If, both Gayle and Benn feature in the game after missing out against Ireland, then, West Indies (1/1 at Bet Fred) may go into the game with a better chance than England (10/11 at Sky Bet). Of course, there is always the toss...!

For most part of the innings against Ireland, it looked like the West Indian batsmen had messed it up in the absence of Chris Gayle (3/1 at Ladbrokes to top-score for his side). Fortunately, Darren Sammy (14/1 at 888Sport to be the best batsman for West Indies) played an explosive innings at the end, and pulled them out of the mire that the side had found itself. Of course, the West Indian side will need one of the top-order guys to get going, and especially against a stronger opposition like England who have a much more incisive bowling attack.

This is where the West Indian side needs to benefit from the experienced presence of Shivnarine Chanderpaul (10/3 at Blue Square) and Ramnaresh Sarwan (4/1 at 888Sport, both to be the best batsmen for West Indies), both of whom are impressive manoeuvrers of the spinning ball. With Kieron Pollard (8/1 at 888Sport to be the best batsman for his side) always there to explode at the end of the innings, West Indies could look at adopting risk-free batting to start off with.

England will be assisted by the presence of Kevin Pietersen (3/1 at Bet Fred) and Eoin Morgan (13/2 at Stan James both, to be the best batsmen for his side), both of whom had featured in the IPL and thus, would have gauged how the pitches would behave even in this tournament. With another IPLer, Paul Collingwood (11/2 at Stan James to top-score for his side) at the helm of the English team, it does look like the batting will take care of itself for England.

What could be an exciting battle will be how Criag Kieswetter (4/1 at Blue Square to top-score for England) handles the West Indian spinners at the top of the innings and that could set the tone for the things to come in the game.

Tips:
Favourites: West Indies (1/1 at Bet Fred)
Top West Indies batsman: Chris Gayle (3/1 at Ladbrokes)
Top England batsman: Kevin Pietersen (3/1 at Bet Fred)