Sportsbet Blog

Cricket season is upon us, and it is time for Australia’s first international test of the summer. The first test of the series against the West Indies, held at the Gabba, has been proclaimed a “walkover.” On paper the Australian team quite easily outranks the West Indian, but you can never judge a match just by statistics. The weather looks excellent in Brisbane, so you can definitely expect a result from the match, and while that is most likely an Australian win, there are plenty of other things to bet on.

Betfair has a huge range of betting options – from top scores to the day when the test match will finish, to the amount of runs scored in the opening partnership. You won’t be bored watching the test, and there are plenty of good value bets.

Australia is $1.27 with Betfair to win the test, while the West Indies are right out at $15.50. The Australian odds are too short for a hobby punter like me, though expect them to be snapped up by many.

There are also odds for the top scorer for each team. For the first innings, Ricky Ponting is favourite in the Australian camp at $4.20, but the two I’m looking at are Shane Watson and Mike Hussey. Both are at $6.00, and both are top-quality batsmen. Watson has been batting well, and Hussey, despite calls for him to resign earlier in the year, has hit some good form in the One Day form of the game. They are both at $3.00 to score a century.

The West Indian team is harder to judge, so I’d stay away from betting on the top scorer unless you are feeling confident. Shivnarine Chanderpaul is at $4.10, while all-rounder Dwayne Bravo provides some value at $7.40.

It’s tough to tell on what day a test match will finish, but there are juicy odds if you can tell. The odds for the test to finish on Day 1, 2, or 3 are $2.50, while the favoured session is the Afternoon of Day 5 at $2.12. I like Day 4’s odds. Each session is at $5.10, and while it is difficult to pick a particular session, I think the Afternoon is looking the most likely.

There are a few things that stick out in my mind as good bets. The first is Shane Watson as top scorer for Australia at $6.00. The second, perhaps a little hopeful, is that the West Indies’ opening partnership will score more than Australia at $2.32. The third is the $2.02 for Watson to score more than Simon Katich.

The 2009 ICC Champions Trophy is drawing nearer day by day and is all set to begin on Tuesday 22^nd September. The tournament will showcase the strongest 8 international cricket teams in the world in one hell of a battle for pride and glory.

The Group Stage has been broken down as follows.

Group A

India

Australia

Pakistan

West Indies

Group B

South Africa

Sri Lanka

England

New Zealand

India is tipped to be the winner of Group A. They are coming off of a great run of one-day victories and have recently had some well deserved success over Sri Lanka. They will come up against Pakistan for the first time in over a year and this is bound to be one of the best matches of the tournament.

Australia is currently in England finishing off their one-day series after an Ashes defeat. They have shown some good form in their last few matches to win the one-day series which is currently sitting at 5-0. They will be looking to retain their title and will be hard to defeat.

Pakistan is one of the most unpredictable sides in cricket today. The Twenty20 champions will be looking for more glory, but I don’t believe that they will find it in the Champions Trophy. They are a great team on their day and have the potential to beat anyone however bad days are far more common for Pakistan.

The fourth team in Group A, the West Indies, will be unlikely to make any real challenge for the trophy. I would be surprised if they are able to defeat any of their group competitors. Recently their second string team was defeated at home to Bangladesh in both the test and one-day series.

South Africa will be the team to watch and the most likely to take the Champions Trophy. The tournament is being played on their home turf and they will be keen to win a trophy here after missing out on the 2003 World Cup and then the 2007 Twenty20 World Championship.

Sri Lanka has recently defeated the Pakistan side and will look to continue their impressive form. They are more than capable of winning the Champions Trophy, but will need to keep up their consistency if they are to do well.

England has not been playing well in their last few one-day matches and has been smashed by the Aussies in the one-day series after winning the Ashes. I would not expect them to challenge.

New Zealand is another team that I would not expect to provide much of a challenge. Although at times, they do play rather well and may surprise.

For all the most up to date odds for the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy I would recommend Betfair. They have fantastic odds for all the group matches and many other things to bet on such as opening partnerships and first method of dismissal.

The Twenty20 World cup is only a few days old and already we have seen some fantastic matches and some stunning upsets.

First New Zealand survived a scare in a shortened 7 over match against Scotland and then Australia got off to a terrible start losing to the West Indies by seven wickets. The Australians were put on the backfoot in the first over when Jerome Taylor took the wickets of all rounder Shane Watson and Captain Ricky Ponting. The Australians struggled to get up any sort of momentum after that and they laboured to a pretty measly total of 169 on what was a good batting pitch. It could have been much worse though if David Warner (who is a total superstar in the making) hadn’t come in and hit his 63 runs, the Australians total was also helped along by some terrible out fielding from the West Indies. But when they came in to bat there were no such mistakes, and a fantastic laid back 88 from Captain Chris Gayle helped the West Indies wrap this game up in just 16 overs. While this will put the Australians under lots of pressure to win their next match you can never right them off. Warner has already showed that he is in good touch and if the likes of Ponting, Wastson and Mitchell Johnson can all start to fire then they can certainly still win the tournament, and with bookies now paying out $9.00 for them to do so they are certainly worth a punt. Go to sportsalive.com and sign up to recieve your free bet.

By far the biggest upset of the tournament and maybe of all time was Englands 4 wicket defeat against Holland. England went in to the match with out Kevin Pietersen, who is still resting an achilles injury, and Andrew Flintoff but they seemed not to miss them and were crusing when they lost their first wicket in the 12th over with a score of 102. A mini collapse followed and England finished on 162 thanks mainly to a fantastic 71 runs from 49 balls by Luke Wright. The total still looked beyond Holland, but thanks to a 49 off 30 balls by Tom de Grooth and mistakes by Stuart Broad and wicket keeper James Foster they found themselves going in to the last over needing just 7 runs for victory. A run a ball and an over throw by Broad on the last ball of the innings was enough for Holland to seal an amazing victory. England may have one eye on the up coming Ashes series but there really is no excuses for such a loss. England are paying $16.00 to go on and win the tournament at sportsalive.com, but with Pakistan up next for the Poms I really wouldn’t waste my money.

At sportsalive.com they are also offering great odds on individual matches, as well as top run scorers and who will hit the most sixes. Get your money on David Warner to score the most tournament runs for Australia.