Bigjoe's Cricket Roundup

By Bigjoe

Champions League Twenty20

Commences Friday 10th September

South Africa stages the 2nd edition of this multi nation tournament featuring the best of the domestic teams from around the globe.

The inaugural event in India last year saw NSW Blues from Australia defeat Trinidad and Tobago to lift the trophy. Neither of these teams have made it through to this year’s event with Australia’s representatives being South Australia and Victoria and Guyana representing the West Indies.

The IPL Champions Chennai Super Kings are joined by Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore to form a strong Indian presence. From South Africa we have Warriors and the Lions who will enjoy the benefit of playing on their home soil. Wayamba from Sri Lanka and Central Districts from New Zealand are the other contenders.

Unfortunately, because the event coincided with the climax of the English County Cricket Season, there are no representatives this year from England. This will take a bit of the gloss off the tournament, but it should still be a fascinating event.

The markets make the three IPL teams amongst the favourites and I expect at least one, if not two of them to contest the final. Chennai and Mumbai make the most appeal to me as they have the pedigree with both bat and ball to go a long way in this tournament.

Bangalore and both the Australian sides should also go well too, but I believe the overall value lies in dutching both Chennai and Mumbai against the rest. There could also be good value in the Tournament top batsman market, where I like the look of the in-form and consistent Sachin Tendulkar of Mumbai to prevail.

My suggested bets for this event therefore are:

In the Outright Market:

BACK Chennai Super Kings for 5 points @ 6.0 at Paddy Power, William Hill

BACK Mumbai Indians for 5 points @ 6.0 at Betfred, Stan James

In the Tournament Top Batsman Market:

BACK Sachin Tendulkar for 2 points @ 11.0 at Ladbrokes, Stan James



England v Pakistan ODI Series

Commences Friday 10th September.

As off field controversies continue to overshadow events on the pitch, the teams now move onto the ODI format and if the two T20 games are anything to go by, Pakistan could be in for more torrid times.

England completed a 2-0 whitewash in those games and will be confident of inflicting further embarrassment onto what looks a demoralised Pakistan team. The betting markets are reflecting that with Pakistan big outsiders for the series at 4.0

Whilst England could obviously go ahead and justify their 1.25 price, I believe there are still good reasons to oppose them at that price. Uppermost among those reasons is that the only positive to come out of this series so far for Pakistan has been their bowlers’ consistent ability to get the England top order out cheaply. In the Tests and both t20 games, England were 4 wickets down relatively quickly more times then not and if the Pakistan batting had even managed respectable, modest scores; Pakistan could have had more success.

I believe that once again in this series the Pakistan bowling will prove very effective. The big question of course is whether their batting can back that up by coming out of the trough of extremely low scores. I feel that over the five games they are capable of turning things around and feel that it’s worth taking a punt on them at this generous 4.5.

My suggested bets for this series therefore are:

In The Series Outright Market:

BACK Pakistan to win for 4 points @ 4.5 at Bet365

In The Series correct Score Market:

BACK Pakistan to win 4-1 for 2 points @ 21.0 at Sky Bet

Bigjoe