Spieth and Moore ready to repel Japanese challenge

Sky Sports 4, 6pm Wednesday
Tournament starts 2.30pm (UK & Ireland)

Match betting

The most top-heavy group of all in the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play is Group Five, where American Ryder Cup winners Jordan Spieth and Ryan Moore are housed with Japanese duo Hideto Tanihara and Yuta Ikeda.

Friday's meeting between Spieth and Moore is likely to be decisive in determining who progresses to the knockout stages, but punters could profit on the first day by supporting the Yanks in a first-round double at a shade bigger than 6-5.

Spieth, a Texan who knows Austin Country Club better than anyone else in the field, should see off Tanihara with the minimum of fuss. Spieth can boast form figures of 1-6-3-3-9-1-22-12 from his last eight events, winning the Australian Open and Pebble Beach Pro-Am in that period.

Tanihara, like the vast majority of Japanese players, struggles to make an impact outside his homeland and is likely to be outclassed in the 3.36pm match. And it should be a similar story when Moore tackles Ikeda at 3.47pm.

Rafael Cabrera Bello finished third in this event last year and will be looking forward to tackling Austin CC again. The consistent Spaniard has since gone on to make a decent Ryder Cup debut, underlining his liking for playing matches.

Cabrera Bello is a surprisingly big price to defeat Match Play debutant Jeunghun Wang in the 7.49pm contest.

Recommendations
J Spieth (2-5) and R Moore (8-13)
2pts double BoyleSports
R Cabrera Bello
2pts 8-11 bet365, Sky Bet