Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011

[Lahrio]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011 By the way, make sure you aren't betting on India's first bowling over going for 7+. Some of the markets can be confusing like that. It wouldn't surprise me given the odds for a very getable amount given the opposition.

[slizorn]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011

+3.32 for the day. -6.81 for the tournament. 2pts Harbhajan Singh Most Economical Bowler (Between Khan, Patel, Burkhari, Seelar & Ten Doeschate) 9/4 via StanJames First and foremost, I don't see this going to any of the dutch bowlers. If India bat first, it is going to be the longest 50 overs of their life and I see a mammoth score from the Indians (leading to expensive dutch bowling figures). Similarly, if they bat second, I reckon the (oddly average) Indian attack has enough quality in their ranks to keep it tight and NOT start conceding runs all over the gaff. Harbhajan has had a pretty ordinary tournament so far which is pretty annoying on my part because I have him on an outright to be top tournament wicket taker. Unless he starts to do some Afridi-shit from here on in, he ain't gonna place in the top 5 which sucks for me. However, in the tournament so far, he has been India's most economical bowler. He has bowled 29 overs out of a possible thirty and gone for 4.80, 5.80 & 3.30. In the first match he lost out to Zaheer Khan by one run and oddly enough the same thing happened in the third match where again Zaheer conceded one run less than Singh. I saw last week though when Kenya and Canada played their game here how much this pitch aided the spinners though and I think HS has the edge over Zaheer. Despite Zaheer being a top bowler with the new ball, he's vulnerable in this market as he generally bowls at the beginning of the innings and at the end where runs are most likely to be scored. 2 points says Singh keeps it tight in the middle overs more than the rest of the five contenders.

Back after what seems like the worst week of my life and the most incredible week of results/shockers/performances in cricket. I was looking at this exact market and I only thought Singh and Khan would have a chance of winning this bet, but after reading your reasoning and looking at past performances as well, I too reckon Singh has a decent chance of winning this and I am on this bet too with the same stakes with not much to add to bigmac's reasoning. 2pts Harbhajan Singh Most Economical Bowler (Between Khan, Patel, Burkhari, Seelar & Ten Doeschate) 9/4 via StanJames Also compelled by kev's reasoning about India going to win this match in a convincing manner, and with nothing else to add, all I can say is that I am following him with same stakes on the same bets with the same odds :$ :hope

[SayYesMoreInLife]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011

Whenever there's a mismatch in quality like there is tomorrow' date=' I always avoid sixes markets for that reason. Too much depends on the toss and in my eyes, it's just not worth the risk. If you decide to play, best of luck :hope[/quote'] Thanks. I decided against it, although I did take India to score more 6's than Ireland @ 1/3 with a £30 stake, thought I may as well. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are more level paring, might consider it.

[SayYesMoreInLife]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011 Holland made 4 6's lol .... if I lose this bet I will be so pissed off...

[Tyler]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011

I was looking at this exact market and I only thought Singh and Khan would have a chance of winning this bet, but after reading your reasoning and looking at past performances as well, I too reckon Singh has a decent chance of winning this and I am on this bet too with the same stakes with not much to add to bigmac's reasoning. 2pts Harbhajan Singh Most Economical Bowler (Between Khan, Patel, Burkhari, Seelar & Ten Doeschate) 9/4 via StanJames

Annoyingly Harbhajan's penultimate delivery of his ten over spell went for a maximum which actually meant he finished with an economy rate of 3.10 and Zaheer finished on 3.00 :wall HOWEVER, I have just noticed that Munaf Patel is not actually playing. I know for a fact that all six of the guys involved have to play for this bet to go ahead so I'm 85% sure this is a dud and stakes will be returned. Might turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

[infamous]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011

Glad I left today's game alone - amazing knock from Taylor. 10pts Seelaar player performance 22pts and over at 5/6 with B365 Max play for me here which is rare with player performance bets. However I feel that this line is ludicrously low. He is the only real spinner in the Netherlands lineup and took 3 wickets in his last game here. If India bat first he has a real chance at this as he should get his full 10 overs in. If Netherlands bat first then I feel that they are a good enough side to put up at least a half decent score. He bats at 9 so has a chance to pick up a couple of runs. If that happens then it is only a case of him taking one wicket to cover this line. Surprisingly averages 17 with the bat, so he could well just leave himself needing a catch to cover this. He is arguably Netherlands' best bowler and he is more than capable of taking 2 wickets to bring this in with just his bowling.

Wins easily despite him not even facing a ball with the bat, and Netherlands only hitting 189! 3 wickets already and only into his 3rd over. India being overly aggressive trying to bump up the run rate/try new things has helped. 8.33 points profit on that bet and now up to +11.98 points profit for the tournament.

[slizorn]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011

India 1st over runs, 7 runs or more @ 3/1 Sportingbet Buhkari will open the bowling, in his 3 matches so far, hes been hit for 7 fours in the first over from 18 balls. hes been hit for 12, 12 and 4 runs in each match, the four came against Amla. India have made 9, 12 and 8 so far in the first over, Sehwag seems to always face the first ball which helps the bet. India's 1st scoring shot, four runs @ 5/1 sportingbet this has been achieved each match so far for India batting, and Holland bowling. these first over bets have been going pretty well so far, its been good to fade Ireland in particular. only taking the second one if India bat first, its actually the match first scoring shot.. this market stays open after the toss at this book

Great call on the 1st ball being 4 runs :clap:clap Bit unlucky on the 1st over having 7 runs or more, just one run short.

[PerryPFC]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011

Great call on the 1st ball being 4 runs :clap:clap Bit unlucky on the 1st over having 7 runs or more, just one run short.

India 1st over runs, 7 runs or more @ 3/1 Sportingbet Buhkari will open the bowling, in his 3 matches so far, hes been hit for 7 fours in the first over from 18 balls. hes been hit for 12, 12 and 4 runs in each match, the four came against Amla. India have made 9, 12 and 8 so far in the first over, Sehwag seems to always face the first ball which helps the bet. India's 1st scoring shot, four runs @ 5/1 sportingbet this has been achieved each match so far for India batting, and Holland bowling. these first over bets have been going pretty well so far, its been good to fade Ireland in particular. only taking the second one if India bat first, its actually the match first scoring shot.. this market stays open after the toss at this book

Bet wasn't taken, I don't think....

[infamous]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011 Early one for tomorrow: 6pts Sri Lanka to beat Zimbabwe -6.5wkts/86.5runs at 5/6 with Bet35 You can get -5.5wkts with Sportingbet, but the runs line is 115 odd. Happier to take this with Bet365 as the Sri Lanka top order is generally pretty reliable. Dilshan, Tharanga, Sangakarra, and Jayawardene are obviously the main run getters in the Sri Lanka lineup and when they win it is usually one or 2 of these lads that does the business. This is the same pitch that NZ thrashed Pakistan on, and from that game I feel that this will suit Sri Lanka much more than it will Zimbabwe. Spin didn't seem overly effective to me and bowlers with the capability to vary pace/bowl a consistent line done well. Sri Lanka's quicks are very disciplined and you have to fancy Malinga to put Zim to the sword. Zimbabwe's bowling comprises mainly of spin bowling, which the Sri Lanka lads are great players of. With the pitch more likely to suit quicks I feel that Zim are up against it here. If Sri Lanka bat first I feel that this bet is very likely to cop. Even if they chase I feel that they have the bowling attack to skittle Zimbabwe cheaply.

[celtic_hoops]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011 Am wary of h`cap betting, its toss of a coin really IMO, if the superior team bat first its all good but if they chasing they could care less about how many wickets they win by

[SayYesMoreInLife]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011 Has any matches yet consisted of a 6 off the first ball? Its 100/1 whilst a 4 is @ a mere 8/1 Are there any opening batsmen who tend to go for the first ball? Over 5.5 6's in tomorrow's Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh match seems appetizing @ 11/10

[Tyler]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011

Am wary of h`cap betting' date=' its toss of a coin really IMO, if the superior team bat first its all good but if they chasing they could care less about how many wickets they win by[/quote'] My sentiments exactly. Today's game was a good example. If India batted first, they probably would've scored well in excess of 300 and more than likely covered any runs handicap at a canter. Batting second is another issue though. There is no way in hell they would've not chased down 198 but it wouldn't matter to them if they did it for the loss of six or seven wickets. The runs side of the handicap never worries me, it's always the wickets side of things and that's generally why I steer clear just incase. I don't recall a six being hit off the first ball so far. That sixes line is quite tasty especially as the boundary here isn't the biggest. However, Sri Lanka aren't notorious for hitting that many sixes; neither are Zimbabwe so that's probably why it's priced up like that.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011 -21.66 for me now. Fcuk knows what India were playing at but at least they were well ahead after 15 overs. And on the bright side Sehwag didn't get away from Trott and Sachin stayed behind him. Would've been nice had Yusuf hung around to clobber a few more 6's but c'est la vie. Just one for me tomorrow. Can't really get a feel for the match which might not be a bad thing given how badly things have gone when I have had a feel :lol. Dew's going to play a big part and I can't be bothered with all that. 4pts Zimbabwe (+24.5 runs) Highest 1st 15 overs 9/10 Sportingbet I think this handicap looks a bit big. Sri Lanka aren't the quickest scoring team at any time but I don't think they'll fly away from Zimbabwe early doors. So far in the tournament Sri Lanka have put up 15 over scores of 73/1 vs Canada, 78/1 against Pakistan, 110/1 against Kenya when chasing nothing and looking to do it quickly hence I'll ignore that and 74/2 against Australia. Meanwhile Zimbabwe have conceded 53/0 against Australia, 35/3 against Canada and 68/0 against New Zealand. Zimbabwe have put up 15 over scores of 57/4 against Australia, 73/2 against Canada and 46/5 against New Zealand. So even when they were 5 down they've always been within 24 runs of their opponents at half way. I've not bothered with what Sri Lanka have conceded because Kenya could bat 15 days and still lose and Canada aren't as strong as Zimbabwe whereas Pakistan are a lot better. Looking at Sri Lanka's scores it's likely they are going to put up a max of somewhere around 75 so Zimbabwe would need 50 and even though Malinga will be bowling he often gives some leg side freebies around. Coventry will give it a bit of slap and tickle while he's in to bump up Zimbabwe's run rate. Ray Price is a tricly bowler to score off no matter how well a side plays spin and with Tharanga pretty conservative I think Zimbabwe will remain in touch with Sri Lanka after 15 overs.

[infamous]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011 Whilst I see what people are saying with regards to handicaps and batting first etc, I disagree to an extent. India bat all the way down and can produce a matchwinning knock from anywhere in their top 7. Wickets in hand are less likely to be as important to them in a chase hence today's game going as it did. They also tried to up the net run rate and experiment with the batting order - which noone could really predict. With Sri Lanka though they rely heavily on their top 4. They are extremely unlikely to experiment with their batting lineup, and all of them are smart batsmen unlikely to throw their wickets away. This is further magnified due to the fact that this is an even more important game as their one against Aus was rained off. Different teams have different approaches/styles of player in their batting lineup which does give some indication with regards to handicaps. One more for tomorrow: 5pts Elton Chigumbura player performance under 34points with Bet365 Medium sized stake here on what I feel is a good bet. Chigumbura has not been in great form at all recently and has come nowhere near this line ins his first 3 games at the world cup. He bats at 5 in the order and his scores so far have been 14, 5, and 1. With the ball he has only bowled 5 overs in the 3 games and hasn't taken any wickets. I don't see him troubling this SL lineup even if he does get a bowl. He also hasn't taken a catch in the first 3 games. Zimbabwe played 3 games against a weakened SL team in 2010, and even then Chigumbura didn't come close to covering this line in any game. All stats/history suggests unders so am happy to make the play.

[Tyler]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011 Annoyingly StanJames settled the economy rate market as a loser which actually means I end the day on -1.36. Minor. 5pts Zimbabwe Extras Over 10.5 5/6 via Ladbrokes Generally, the Sri Lankan bowlers are quite disciplined when it comes to extras. I mentioned this last time out against Australia that they don't really give away that many, especially when you have the trio of Murali, Mendis and Herath controlling the middle overs. However, this line looks incredibly low and with the addition of Malinga into the side I can't see how there will not be eleven extras in the Zimbabwean innings. Zimbabwe are not completely useless with the bat. Despite them not scoring a great deal of runs they actually bat for quite a while. In the three matches they've played so far (Australia, New Zealand, Canada) they have batted out 46.2 overs twice and gone the 50 against Canada. Even if they only last thirty tomorrow I struggle to see 11 extras not being bowled by the Lankans. I'm pretty sure that Malinga will sling some wides or leg byes at some stage and there are always leg side wides on offer from some of the spinners. I generally don't like to go against SL in the extras market but 11 is very achievable, even for them. So I'll play. 4pts Fall of 1st Sri Lanka Wicket Over 37.5 Runs via Ladbrokes I think I am pushing my luck with this line but I will continue to play it. I know it's going to fail me sooner or later but I don't think it will be tomorrow. The two opening batsmen for Sri Lanka are a very good opening pair and cover thisline on a regular basis. Definitely feel tomorrow will be another in the long line of solid starts for Sri Lanka against a pretty ordinary bowling attack. The Zimbabweans conceded 61runs before they got a wicket against Watson/Haddin and they didn't break Guptill/Mcculum for 166 runs. They had Canada at 7/3 but you can't really look into that, when they have been up against quality they struggle for early inroads. Upul and Tillekeratne score runs for fun together. There's always a risk Dilshan will go after one too many and throw his wicket away but I still think 38 runs is do-able and will sacrifice 4pts to see that they pass it. 4pts M. Muralitharan Performance Pts 35&Over 5/6 via Bet365 Murali has had a really indifferent world cup so far. He has not taken that many wickets and has actually been quite quiet for his standards. If this was the first game of the tournament there is now this line would be set at 35. I feel he is too good to go so much time without performing though and I think a few of the Zimbabwean batsmen will struggle against his variations. Despite him only clearing this once so far I fancy he'll take two wickets tomorrow and get his last World Cup back on track. 2.5pts P. Utseya Number of WIckets Over 0.5 EVS via Ladbrokes I was going to take overs on his player performance markets at 29.5 but I thought I'd take this for the security. I have been impressed with Prosper since the start of the tournament. He actually is a decent One Day bowler and has been quite effective for Zimbabwe so far. He has 96 wickets to his name and has formed a handy partnership so far with Ray Price keeping it tight and snagging a few wickets at the same time. He is handy with the bat too. He has placed in the top three twice out of a possible three times so far and I fancied him each way at 12/1 over at Coral but decided against it. I don't expect a great deal of Sri Lankan wickets to fall tomorrow, but in the event that two or three down, I'll take EVS on Utseya being one of the wickettakers.

[Spooner]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011 L.Malinga Top Sri Lankan Bowler @ 15/8 Bluesq 3pts Malinga should be full of confidence after taking a hat-trick in last match and six wickets altogether. I'm hoping that Zimbabwe get in first and hold their own then Malinga will do some damage with the older ball but if not then he is still Sri Lanka's main threat on this wicket.

[cashit]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011

By the way' date=' make sure you aren't betting on India's first bowling over going for 7+. Some of the markets can be confusing like that. It wouldn't surprise me given the odds for a very getable amount given the opposition.[/quote'] yeah its definetly Indias batting innings, i have done this for a few games so far and it is the right side, can be confusing though, Hollands odds were 7/1. unlucky last night i thought, i predicted it right with Sehwag hitting a four for his first runs but fell on 6 for the over. i might look at taking 6 or more at another book which is around 2.30. just the one bet tonight Cremer high score @ 31 Sportingbet i will never get the 81/1 i got for him against the Aussies again, but i feel this is another match he could manage a top score, if Malinga has his way with the Zimbabwe top order. another bet i looked at is the first 15 highest score, considering how economical Price has been i was very tempted to bet on Zimbabwe for this EDIT: found a bet i am going to play Zimbabwe more sixes than SL @ 4.00 i think we all know SL don't hit sixes, infact their 3 biggest hitting top order batsmen have never hit one against Zimbabwe found another Zimbabwe first mode of dismissal bowled @ 5.50 LBW @ 6.50 one word Malinga

[SayYesMoreInLife]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011

4pts Fall of 1st Sri Lanka Wicket Over 37.5 Runs via Ladbrokes I think I am pushing my luck with this line but I will continue to play it. I know it's going to fail me sooner or later but I don't think it will be tomorrow. The two opening batsmen for Sri Lanka are a very good opening pair and cover thisline on a regular basis. Definitely feel tomorrow will be another in the long line of solid starts for Sri Lanka against a pretty ordinary bowling attack. The Zimbabweans conceded 61runs before they got a wicket against Watson/Haddin and they didn't break Guptill/Mcculum for 166 runs. They had Canada at 7/3 but you can't really look into that, when they have been up against quality they struggle for early inroads. Upul and Tillekeratne score runs for fun together. There's always a risk Dilshan will go after one too many and throw his wicket away but I still think 38 runs is do-able and will sacrifice 4pts to see that they pass it.

Very good call. :clap:clap:clap:clap

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011 Zimbabwe stayed close enough after 15 overs so I'm back to -18.06 overall now. Some excellent calls in this thread. Great shouts by infamous with the SL cap and cashit with the first Zimbo wicket dismissal but Bigmac steals the show with a full house :clap:clap. 3 for me in the opener tomorrow. 6pts Ireland +4.5 wickets/68.5 runs 5/6 Bet365 This handicap looks a bit big to me. West Indies are good and I expect them to win but they ain't that good. From what we've seen so far I think Ireland can justifiably say they are the best of the teams outside the main 8 and they can keep close to the Windies here. They've beaten England and stayed close to Bangladesh and West Indies are somewhere in the middle of the two. Even if Ireland bat first they had India 5 down on that Bangalore featherbed last time out and this West Indian lineup isn't as powerful as that. I don't know if the size of this handicap is affected by the ease of West Indies' win over Bangladesh but for my money Ireland are a lot stronger than Bangladesh and on another batting paradise they can stay close enough to the Windies here. 4pts N.O'Brien's Match Runs - Over 19.5 5/6 Ladbrokes I've no idea why this line is so low. Niall O'Brien is a very accomplished batsman who has hit scores of 38 against Bangladesh, 29 against England and 46 against India in the tournament so far. He also made 49 in a one off ODI against the West Indies last year so this line looks pretty low to me. He has got a couple of low scores against the West Indies from 2007 which tempers my stakes slightly but he's a much better player now than he was then and I think he'll make his way into the 20's again here on what is a perfectly good batting track. 1pt ew K.O'Brien Top Ireland Batsman 6/1 Coral (1/5 1,2,3) Big Kev ain't going to top score for Ireland every time they play but by the same token he's likely to go well, particularly on these tracks which aren't doing a great deal. West Indies deal in a bit of medium pace in the likes of Sammy and Pollard and by the time O'Brien reaches the crease Roach and Benn should've been used up a fair bit. He top scored in that ODI I mentioned above with 54 from 52 balls so he's got some previous against this attack and with hype and expectation having died down after his failure against the Indian's I'll take big Kev to do some damage again.

[PerryPFC]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011 Great work all :clap especially Bigmac, huge return for you with some confident stakes :notworthy

[infamous]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011 SL handicap breezed in, but annoyingly Chigumbura took 3 catches to mess up the player performance! Leaves me level for the day with no win or loss. Great calls from most today, but esp bigmac! Quality tipping. Still analysing tomorrow's games, but on first looks I am really liking the handicaps on both Ireland and Bangladesh.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011 2 for me in the 2nd match. 5pts 1st over runs - Over 4.5 11/10 Stan James This line looks a little bit low to me. Tamim will take strike against England and he's capable of doing some crazy stuff first up and in the last match Strauss was dancing down the track to the spinner in the first over so England will look to be aggressive. Both the Bangladeshi seamers have high economy rates. 5.94 for Shafiul and 6.00 or Rubel. Even if they bowl spin first up Naeem is in the high 4's economy wise. Anderson has gone round India at a high rate in this world cup as well. The only team not to cover this against Bangladesh is West Indies who were chasing 59 and only Ireland haven't covered this against England. Chittagong is a good batting wicket with pace and bounce and a quick outfield and I expect both sides to be able to get to 5 runs in the opening over with neither opening bowler watertight. 3pts N.Islam's Performance Pts - 27&Over 5/6 Bet365 Points are scored as follows: 1pt per run, 10pts per catch & 20pts per stumping. Naeem Islam isn't the worst all rounder in the world. He's been opening the bowling for Bangladesh and with Strauss not the best player of spin he could easily pick up a couple of wickets in this innings. He's also a decent lower order batsman. He's already covered this target with the bat in this tournament. He averages 30.50 with the bat against England albeit in only 3 ODI's and has 3 wickets in those matches too. Either an average knock with the bat or a good day with either sees this covered so I'll take the overs on this performance.

[Tyler]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011 Yeah thanks guys. Looks like a good day all round in here really. +13.29 for the day takes me into the green to +5.12. I'm happy considering I was -30 and beyond less than two weeks ago. On top of that my outright on Dilshan Top Bat at 28/1 took a major boost with his top innings today so things are looking up. There really isn't a lot I fancy ahead of tomorrow. The bookies have everything priced up correctly and without Pietersen, I'm abit tentative on taking England on the 1st Fifteen over handicap. Therefore only playing with the following. 2pts Performance Pts Double: Graeme Swann 40 & Over x Darren Bravo 38 & Over at 3.29 via Bet365 This is either going to be a complete waste of 2pts or an ultimate master stroke and I hope to God its the latter. Darren Bravo is a batsman that I am a fan of. He has a top technique and comes in at #3 for the Windies providing plenty of time for him to build his innings. Annoyingly he has only batting and a rare chance of a catch to get to 39 points but I think he is good enough with the willow in his hands to clear it. If you take out his last official innings (which was 9* the other day against the Deshi's) he has cleared this line 3 times out of the last four he has played and the time when he didn't was a 30 run innings. He won't face incredibly good bowling tomorrow and provided the openers see off the opening bowlers, he'll come in around the time of the 1st change which shouldn't pose too many problems for him. It was a toss up between Bravo and Thomas on the Performance Points bet but I plucked with Bravo and I am confident he'll produce the goods. Graeme Swann in my eyes has been England's best bowler so far in the tournament. The only annoying thing though is that he doesnt have the wickets to show for it. He's played a key part in all the matches so far and I think he'll continue to show his importance to this side tomorrow. The spell he bowled against South Africa last time out was one of the best I've ever seen from him and it only produced one wicket (and a run out). I'm hoping tomorrow the pitch at Mohali assists him like it did for the spinners in the only previous match to be played here. Tahir and Ten Doeschate both took three wickets apiece here last week with spin actually accounting for 6 of the nine dutch wickets to fall by the ball. On top of that we have seen how effective he CAN be with the bat and there's always the threat of the catch. I'm not overly worried about Swann. More about Bravo here but I am hoping they both step up and see me over both of these lines. 1pt Jonathon Trott Top England Batsman 4/1 StanJames Doesn't even need much explaining really. Jonathon Trott has been the guy for a while now for England, digging us out of many holes and hitting three fifties so far in the tournament already. I am not sure how England intend to play without Pietersen up top. Whoever steps up to open (probably Prior or Bell) will not be a natural opener and will have to adjust quickly to the job which I am not liking. Morgan will come into the side too having had no recent practice and Bopara will have a lot expected of him after his impressive knock last time. I just think Trott can do what he does best with no added pressures tomorrow against some fairly mediocre bowling and bring this home at a nice price.

[infamous]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011 5pts West Indies -4.5 wickets/68.5 runs at 5/6 with Bet365 At first look I really liked Ireland with this handicap, but upon more research I have decided to back the Windies to cover. Being reported that Johnston sat out the warm up here which suggests he won't play. If that is the case then it's a huge loss for Ireland imo. Looking at previous history on this ground it doesn't appear that spin goes too well on the whole - once again bad news for the Irish lads. I feel that they will struggle to contain the Windies in the middle overs and will be there to be milked around for easy runs. Without Johnston, I feel that the quicks lack any real variety and may not have the same bite when bowling first up. If things get predictable then there is no-one better than Gayle to put a team to the sword. Windies have a lot of variation in their bowling. Benn is unique as we know and Roach has raw pace that could/should trouble Ireland early on. Then you have Sammy and Pollard who have decent variations/changes of paces, as well as the ability to bowl a consistent line and length. Chuck in Rampaul who it is being rumoured will play then you have a pretty handy attack full of fast/medium fast bowlers. Of course if the pitch does take spin then Ireland have a far greater chance of covering this, but I'm going to side against it and call a run-fest with the spinners being expensive.

[infamous]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011 Ireland win and bowl which is a good thing for the bet imo. Bad thing though is that although Johnston is out, so is Gayle! Bet has already been placed though so will have to ride with it. @bigmac, you have probs placed the bet already but just a heads up that it is the Windies vs Ireland game being played in Mohali. England vs Bangladesh is in Chittagong, which I believe hasn't been used yet in this tournament.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011 One more for me in the England game. 4pts Over 14.5 wides 5/6 William Hill I waited to see the result of the toss as there was always a chance Bangladesh were shoved in and capitulated again but they've won the toss and put us in which I think helps the wides. Bangladesh covered this total on their own in their first match against India which was the only match they've bowled first in so far. India attacked them that day and ran them ragged and I think England can do the same here. England will be bowling under lights with the dew around and we've brought Shahzad in who's action often leads to him leaking deliveries down the leg side. England will contribute to the wides for sure but Bangladesh can get through quite a few of them. Both sides have a few left handers in the side which is never a bad thing with the wides so I'll take the overs here.

[infamous]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011 4pts Ireland to beat Windies @evens in play with B365 Got to be quick with this one - simply put Ireland are in a great position at 177/3 after 37 overs. They still have a batting powerplay to come and also still have big Kev to come in. A run-rate of 7.62 is definitely doable and there does not appear to be much in the pitch. Will take a shot at these odds - although one or 2 wickets could kill the bet very quickly.

[Westy]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011 With the tournament getting to the business end, I'm hoping to be more active in the next few weeks. And I like a few for tomorrow's game. 1pt - Top SA batsman: Jacques Kallis - 4/1 (widely available) 3pts - Player performance: Kallis 49pts & over - 5/6 (bet365) Now there's no form behind this pick considering Kallis has done virtually nothing in the tournament so far. In fact he hasn't covered the player performance total once which would make this a strange pick. However no one can deny that JK is a class act and over the years I've seen him be a thorn in the side for India on many occasions. India's bowling attack is weak and Kallis will get his chance to fill his boots on a batting paradise in Nagpur. With Graeme Smith likely to fall to Zaheer Khan early (:tongue2), Kallis should have all the time in the world to play himself in and get a big score on the board. Amla and ABDV will give him tough competition in the top bat market but I'm happy to stake a point in Kallis to top the run scoring in this match. Furthermore I fancy him to cover the 49pts with his all-round talents on display. 3pts - Highest first 15 overs total: South Africa - 11/10 (bet365) MS Dhoni has commented on the importance of India's openers to bat longer for his team which could be reflected by Sehwag and Tendulkar taking their time to get themselves in particularly against the likes of Steyn or Morkel where runs will be difficult to come by. On the other hand, India's weakness is their new ball attack which has been bleeding runs in most games. The likes of Smith and Amla like to start quickly so with South Africa's opening bowlers being their strong suit and India's opening bowlers being their weaker suit, I'm taking South Africa to have the highest total after 15 overs.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011 Another good day for me today. +7.16pts to take me back to -10.88 overall now. One more run in England's 1st over would've seen me level overall but c'est la vie. Well done to all with winners in Friday's matches :clap. 3 for me tomorrow. 5pts India to hit most 6's 5/4 Boylesports I really like India in this market particularly at the price. South Africa's top order don't have the freedom to hit many 6's because their batting line up is so short. In fact only two men have hit 6's for SA in the tournament to date. India bat a long way down and with the exception of maybe Gambhir and perhaps Kohli they all hit 6's. Yuvraj, Sehwag, Yusuf and Dhoni are serial hitters for India of the like perhaps apart from de Villiers that South Africa just don't have. The likes of Yusuf Pathan spent the recent ODI series in SA smacking South Africa around the grounds and I think he and his teammates can hit the most 6's here. 1pt ew Y.Pathan Top India Batsman 12/1 Coral (1/5 1,2,3) I love this price on Yusuf Pathan for two reasons. Firstly he was superb in the ODI series in SA at the turn of the year and the century he hit at Centurion will live long in the memory for a long while. Should he bat at 7, this SA attack has the ability to get him in with a top score still in sight. I say should be bat at 7 because India pissed about with their batting line up in their last match and sent Yusuf in at 3. He didn't capitalise but with India through Dhoni may take the chance to send him up the order again to see if he can get a solid innings under his belt. If he is pushed up he might be asked to play a full innings rather than a crash bang wallop one so he may rein in the risks a bit. He's capable of both types of innings which makes him a lovely ew bet at a big double figured price. 1pt AB de Villiers Man of the Match 12/1 Bet365 AB's a big price here. He scored two unbeaten tons when SA last played an ODI series in India and he's already got two tons to his name in the world cup and looks in superb form. Talk is he'll revert to being the wicket keeper so he'll be in the game for the entire 50 overs of India's innings. There's probably no batsman in better form in India than de Villiers at the minute. He loves batting in the country and with the way he plays spin so well there's no reason why he won't go well in this innings. He could put in a real big one which would make him a big contender for the man of the match prize.

[Tyler]

Re: Cricket: ICC World Cup 2011 Jonathon Trott saved the high-risk double so +2.00 for day and +7.12 for the tournament. Would've taken that sixes bet all day so have followed that at Boyles with 4pts. Not a great deal else I fancy though so only going with the one. 5pts India First 15 Overs Handicap (-2.5 runs) 10/11 via Sportingbet The beauty about India's batting line up is that they bat so deep. It's not even like they lose quality as they go down either. Kohli, Dhoni, Yuvraj and Pathan could walk into most other international teams and play in their first XI. Let's be serious, Harbhajan can swing a bat too, that geeza hit some sexy hundreds not too long ago. What this means though is that the top two can be very aggressive in the first powerplays. The stat that Sehwag has hit a four off the first ball four matches in a row has been mentioned a few times in this thread so far and along with Tendulkar, they usually take teams to the sword in the opening 15 overs. I have mentioned before that England opening with Pietersen and Strauss are the best in the world at this market and that showed when they beat India in this by well over 20 runs. Barring that match though, they've played 104/1 (Bangladesh), 95/3 (Ireland) and 99/4 (Holland). Even against England when they lost this comfortably, they hit 84 in the first fifteen so they're pretty good at this shit. South Africa on the contrary haven't lived up to what they have been doing prior to the World Cup. They only really have batting down to say Duminy/ Van Wyk so they don't really accelerate THAT much from the off. They've gone 73/2 (WestIndies), 58/1 (Netherlands) & 68/1 (England) in their three games so far which isn't overly impressive. They're highest score is nowhere near India's lowest and trying to better this against the very good Zaheer tomorrow won't be easy. The pitch at Nagpur is a dream to play and I actually think Sehwag and Sachin will enjoy the pace coming onto the bat from Steyn etc. If they start with spin again like they did against England, they'll have to be ON POINT from the off. Somehow I don't think Sehwag will give them his wicket like Strauss did. India to take this for me at a decent price.