Cricket: Australian Domestic Season 2010/11

[kevshat]

Ok I've thought about betting on the Australian domestic cricket season a fair bit over the last few weeks and it's begun this week and I've decided I am going to. There's a few Aussies on PL too who may well get involved so this should be another decent thread. I think we'll go with the Sheffield Shield and the Ryobi Cup in this thread and when the time comes we'll have a seperate thread for the Big Bash as we had last year as that's the flagship event and has UK coverage. For those of you in the UK who want to follow the thread, the Sheffield Shield is similar to our County Championship in the UK. It's a 4 day competition with all the states playing each other home and away and then the top 2 play in the final at the end of the season. Points are scored as follows: 6pts for a match win 3pts for a tie 2pts for a 1st innings lead in a lost or drawn match 1pt for a 1st innings tie in a lost or drawn match 0pts for a match loss, a 1st innings loss on a lost match or a match where both 1st innings are not completed The biggest format change has come in the one day competition which was called the Ford Ranger Cup, now the Ryobi Cup. It's a 45 over competition and again the states play each other home and away with the top 2 going into the final. The big difference this year is that it's a split innings contest. The rules are:

• 2 innings. Both sides bat for 20 overs and then their 2nd innings is of 25 overs.
• Teams get 10 wickets to cover both innings
• 2nd innings resumes at the same score that the 1st innings finishes
• Bowlers can bowl up to 12 overs
• New ball for both innings
• No more than 4 fielders outside the circle at any time (as opposed to 5 in international cricket) except for 2 set powerplays which are the 1st 5 overs in each innings
• 12 players can be named with 11 batting and 11 able to bowl
• 1pt scored for 1st innings lead
• 4pts for match winner

Season lasts just under 5 months and with England being out in Oz this winter we should get some decent UK markets up :ok.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: Australian Domestic Season 2010/11 Two matches tomorrow (Friday am UK time). Sheffield Shield game between Queensland who host Tasmania and a Ryobi Cup match between Western Australia and Victoria. Was close to taking Tasmania in the SS match and it's one of them which we may look back on when it's done and :wall but Queensland are a side I've not figured out yet so we'll leave their matches alone until I can get a hold and a feel for how they go about things. I'll attack the Ryobi match though. 4pts Victoria to beat Western Australia 8/11 VC I like Victoria here for a couple of reasons. First and foremost the Bushrangers have had some competitive cricket already this year having had their Champions League campaign last month and then secondly the Warriors are missing some players who are out in India. Marcus North, their skipper is one of those away as is Mitchell Johnson. Mike Hussey is another who is away. Ok Mickey Arthur's men won't see too much of them this season but you'd like them around when you take on the best state side in the country. Victoria are pretty much at full strength. Brad Hodge has retired from first class cricket but he's still playing limited overs cricket and Cameron White is back and skippering the side before he heads of to India. David Hussey and the in form Arron Finch make up a decent batting lineup. Peter Siddle, Clint McKay, Andrew McDonald and the spin of Bryce McGain all have international quality in them. WA will be led by Adam Voges and even in the absence of Hussey, Johnson and North they still have some good quality in the likes of Noffke, Pomersbach, Marsh and Ronchi but for me Victoria are the superior side here and I think they can open their season account with a debut win in the new format.