USA vs Ireland T20 Cricket World Cup Prediction & Picks: Will History Be Made in Lauderhill?

After sending shockwaves through the cricket world with the biggest upset in Men’s T20 World Cup history, the USA cricket team fell short of upstaging that result against India on Wednesday. Still, a place in the Super 8s will be theirs with a win today over Ireland, who are looking to keep their own Super 8s hopes alive with a victory.

In opening the tournament with wins over Canada and Pakistan, the USA batted well while attempting to chase down targets, losing only three wickets in each match.

But in Wednesday’s match against India, they went to the crease first for the first time and struggled to post a competitive total. Multiple times, they started putting together a partnership only to lose a wicket. After Corey Anderson fell on the penultimate ball of the 17^th over, the USA managed only 14 runs across their final 19 balls to finish at 110 for 8.

To their credit, however, they made India work for their victory. With 7.3 overs gone, the tournament favorites were 39 for 3 after Rishabh Pant was dismissed. But from there, Suryakumar Yadav and Shivam Dube guided India home with an unbeaten 72-run partnership, reaching the target of 111 with ten balls to spare.

The defeat put a dent in the USA’s net run rate, but they could still reach the Super 8s even with a loss today if Ireland can upset Pakistan on Sunday.

Of course, such help won’t be required if the job can be done today at Central Broward Park. Match odds favor Ireland, but the USA’s efforts in their first three matches provide a lot of encouragement about their chances to conjure up a historic result.

USA vs Ireland Odds

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Moneyline

• USA +125
• Ireland -150

Can the USA Bounce Back with the Bat?

It is no surprise that the USA struggled to put runs on the board against India. In their first two matches of the tournament, India restricted Ireland to 96 runs and Pakistan to 113 runs. So, it’s not all bad for the USA.

Still, when India made hard work of their chase, one must think of how crucial another 15 or 20 runs could have been.

There should be a few more runs on the board today, especially with captain Monank Patel expected to return to the starting XI after missing out on Wednesday due to injury. His replacement, Shayan Jahangir, fell on the very first ball of the innings, as Arshdeep Singh picked up the first of his four wickets on the day.

Chasing teams have won 17 of 27 completed matches thus far in the T20 World Cup, including five of the seven Group A matches. That is something to keep in mind if your sportsbook offers live betting for the match.

In my pre-tournament predictions for the T20 World Cup, I backed the USA to upset Ireland, along with picking Afghanistan to reach the Super 8s and South Africa to win the tournament.

One of those predictions has come to fruition, as Afghanistan qualified for the Super 8s last night with a seven-wicket win over Papua New Guinea.

Will the Proteas come through? We’ll see, but they have already locked up a spot in the Super 8s with wins in their first three Group D matches.

I didn’t think that the USA would be playing for a place in the Super 8s when they faced off with Ireland, but here we are, and their performances to this point have only served to strengthen my confidence that they will get the result I predicted prior to the tournament.