A Week of Cricket

By Bigjoe

Sri Lanka v Australia Test Series

Starts 13st  August 201, Galle

Australia's first tour to Sri Lanka since 2004 has seen mixed fortunes for them so far. They got off to a terrible, start losing both the T20 games, but bounced back to win the ODI series 3-2.

Now it’s on to a 3 Test series starting at Galle. Both teams have started new era’s under new skippers. Dilshan took over the realms on Sri Lanka’s recent disappointing tour of England and Michael Clarke took over the captaincy of Australia after their heavy Ashes loss. Both teams therefore will be looking to bounce back in this longer format.

The conditions and pitches in Sri Lanka have always favoured the home team and a tour there is one of the hardest for any team, especially if they not from the Sub Continent and therefore not familiar with the searing heat and humidity. The turgid slow tracks also suit the Sri Lankan batsmen and their spinners.

Australia have slipped alarmingly in this format over the last few years and without a recognised class spinner they will struggle in this series too. Sri Lanka on home soil will prove to be too strong in all departments and are outstanding value to prevail.

My suggested bets therefore are:

In the Series Outright Market:

BACK Sri Lanka to win for 5points @ 3.30 on Betfair

In the Series Correct Score Market:

BACK Sri Lanka  to win 1-0 for 2 points @ 5.2 at Betfair

BACK Sri Lanka to win 2-0 for 2 points @ 12.50 at Betfair

BACK Sri Lanka to win 3-0 for 1 point @ 36.0 at Betfair


England v India ODI Series

Starts 3rd September, Chester Le Street

Most people thought the Test series between these two would be close, some thought England would prevail, not many though anticipated the 4-0 whitewash for England that ensued.

England proved that their dominant performance in the Ashes in the winter was no fluke as they unceremoniously dumped India from their coveted No.1 ranking and deservedly took over the mantle as the best Test team in the world.

The bruised, deflated and shocked Indian team will be now be relieved to move onto the shorter ODI format, one which saw them lift the world cup a few months ago. This format is also the one that has seen England struggle in recently. They followed up that Ashes triumph with a resounding 6-1 loss to Australia in the ODI series that followed. Worse was to come in that World Cup when England slipped to defeats to Bangladesh and Ireland.

The evidence suggests that whilst England go from strength to strength in the Test arena, they are still lagging behind in the shorter format and are worth opposing in this series.

India will be missing some big names for these games. Sehwag, Zaheer, Harbhajan and Yuvraj have all returned home with injuries. However the replacements in Parthiv Patel, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravichandaran Ashwin are proven in their own right in this format and all performed well in the warm up games.

Changes too for England, most notably the decision to rest Kevin Pietersen in favour of the exciting new talent in Ben Stokes. Alistair Cook takes over the captaincy in this shorter format, both these moves demonstrate that England are in the process of rebuilding in this format and so are not yet fully firing on all cylinders.

I believe the outstanding value in this series lies in backing India. Yes they struggled in the Tests, but they have the players and depth in batting for this format and I fully expect them to confirm their status of  world champions and win this series comfortably. My suggested bets are:

In The Series Outright Market:

BACK India to win for 5 points @ 2.0 at Bet365

In The Series Correct Score Market:

BACK India to win 5-0 for 2 points @ 19.0 at Sportingbet

BACK India to win 4-1 for 3 points @ 6.5 at Sportingbet

Bigjoe