Category: Cricket

Cricket World Cup: Day 6 Recap

Posted on by Online Betting Pro

Nelson delivered the closest game of the Cricket World Cup thus far courtesy of the Zimbabwe and UAE team’s collective batting efforts.  While the bowling and fielding on display wasn’t always of the highest quality, the decent turns at bat provided some tense times for both sets of fans in an exiting finish.  Check out who did what below.

Day 6 Results

Zimbabwe v UAE

UAE got straight back on the horse of Cricket World Cup’s today with a handy first up batting effort against a confident Zimbabwe side that nearly proved enough to sneak a second World Cup win.  Playing nice and straight initially, and holding wickets for the final assault, the UAE found an effective way of taking advantage of their opponents strangling field placements by manipulating the field and exploiting some of the smaller Saxton Oval boundaries.  The big runs were made by Shaiman Anwar and Khurram Khan, but coach, Aaqib Javed, will rue the fact that no one went on to an 80 or hundred.

Zimbabwe may have been ragged in the field but with bat in hand it was a different story.  The big chase could have proved difficult, with the regular wickets stifling threatening to compound them to an upset, but at no stage did the Africans panic.  Instead each new batsman contributed to the run rate and aptly supported the man in.  Contributions from most of the side, save for Masakadza and Mire, eventually got them home by four wickets with a couple of overs to spare.

This match was further evidence of the closing gap between test sides and associate nations.  Remember, just a few days ago Zimbabwe scared South Africa with a strong showing.  Here, they were almost on the receiving end of a similar scare.  It’s great for the Cricket World Cup.

Zimbabwe 286 for 6 (Williams 76, Taylor 47) beat UAE 285 for 7 (Anwar 67, Khurram 45, Chatara 3-42) by 4 wickets

Cricket World Cup: Day 6 Preview

Posted on by Online Betting Pro

Welcome to Day 6.  An early start in Nelson for a match featuring two of the Cricket World Cup underdogs.

The Three Big (Cricket World Cup Thus Far) Questions

Is Net Run Rate that important? 

New Zealand almost butchered an easy run-chase against Scotland the other day all in the pursuit of a superior Net Run Rate (NRR).  As the New Zealand public panic and critics slam their recklessness the New Zealanders didn’t care less.  You see, wickets lost is not used in the calculations of NRR.  Simply, the runs scored is divided by the overs faced and subtracted from the runs conceded divided by the overs bowled.  The Black Caps now have a health NRR of 2.62.  That’s important because if teams are on equal points after the round robin series, NRR will separate them.  The top four teams play off against each other in a traditional 1 v 4 scenario so it’s understandable NZ want to consider all factors.

Which team is better with their backs against the wall?  West Indies or Pakistan?

Write either of them off at your peril.  Both Pakistan and the West Indies play better without expectation.  They can relax, they can entertain, they can play naturally; aggressively.  Yes, both have suffered embarrassing defeats in their first games, but the tournaments a long one, they can atone for this in the latter more important stages.  Pakistan were semi-finalists in this tournament on 2011 and took out the Twenty20 World’s in 2009 in similar circumstances.  West Indies too have enjoyed big tournament wins as recently as 2012 (World Twenty20).

Is Duckworth-Lewis ever going to be a factor?  Is this World Cup being played in Qatar?

Certainly the lack of rain has been a pleasing factor of the first week of action.  Messrs Duckworth and Lewis left to work on even more complex algorithms, rather than meddle in international cricket. It probably won’t last forever mind you with Brisbane expecting showers for Michael Clarke’s return to action against Bangladesh on Saturday.

Today’s Match

UAE v Zimbabwe, Saxton Oval (Nelson – mostly sunny), starts 11:00am local time

Zimbabwe – $1.14

UAE – $5.75

Zimbabwe will take great confidence from their performance against South Africa into this one where they have been given the tag of strong favourites.  Zimbabwe were excellent in 70-80 overs against South Africa and will be looking to extrapolate that out to a complete performance today.  Not that this one’s expected to go 100 overs.

UAE are likely to struggle in their first Cricket World Cup since 1996.  They have been set-up in Napier fine tuning their games against club cricketers, but reports are they have struggled to beat Hawke’s Bay’s best club players in a series of one-daters.  That’s a worry.

Today’s Bet

Elton Chigumbura – Man of the Match – $11.00

Odds from Centrebet.

Cricket World Cup: Day 5 Recap

Posted on by Online Betting Pro

We were way off the mark predicting a win for Bangladesh.  Sorry.  Afghanistan’s debut in the Cricket World Cup didn’t go to plan against a classy Bangladesh outfit in day five’s only game.

Day 5 Results

Afghanistan v Bangladesh

The two most important players to Bangladesh Cricket World Cup chances both delivered in their opening effort against Afghanistan.  Mushfiqur and Shakib both broke the mould of twenties to combine for a partnership of 114, and set their opponents a demanding total of 267.  The top-order’s earlier efforts lacked momentum as Afghanistan made a good fist of bowling first after Bangladesh opted to bat.  Those efforts were overturned, however, after the captain and former captain entered the fray.  Shakib in particular justified his ranking as the world’s top ranked ODI all-rounder with an entertaining 63.

Afghanistan can play, but when they lost wickets in each of the first three overs the writing was on the wall.  Mashrafe Mortaza did most of the damage.  He took 3-20, and Afghanistan mustered just 162; bundled out in the 43rd over.

Bangladesh deserved to be buoyed by their enterprising opening in a mac that could have been trickier than they made it.  They’ll back themselves to snap up a quarter-final spot now and plausibly push for an upset once there.  Afghanistan can look forward to games against Scotland and Australia (lol) as the games to target in order to achieve a first Cricket World Cup win.

Bangladesh 267 (Mushfiqur 71, Shakib 63, Shapoor 2-20) beat Afghanistan 162 (Nabi 44, Mashrafe 3-20) by 105 runs

Cricket World Cup: Day 5 Preview

Posted on by Online Betting Pro

The World Cup didn’t see an upset yesterday, but did see a much more fancied New Zealand team struggle against a lively Scotland line-up.  Today’s match see’s Bangladesh face off against Afghanistan.  We preview that match below and pose three interesting questions not he World Cup thus far.

The Three Big Questions

Will the World Cup see a close game?

Arguably the Ireland v West Indies game was close, but none of the other games have.  Even then the Irish looked odds on through much of their chase in another indication that bat is set to dominate ball in this World Cup instalment.  Ireland’s win aside, the smaller cricketing nations will always struggle in the early rounds, and one could expect that the round robin stage will be less competitive than the quarters and semis.  However, the tournament needs some competitive games and some close finishes to hold the attention of fans during the prolonged opening salvo, before everyone starts pencilling in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India for the top four positions.

Is New Zealand’s top order weaker than we think?

Yesterday got pretty scary for the Black Caps and their high riding fans.  5/117 and then 137/7 are results not indicative of the type of runs the top order has been accumulating recently.  A deeper look at some of those recent results though might point to some top order woes that could have them edgy and other teams excited.  To go with yesterday’s implosion, the Black Caps had the following scores in their ODI series against Sri Lanka: 149/6, 183/6, 63/3, 82/4 and 141/6.  While it’s possible to argue the final totals were impressive and they got the job done, it can also be shown there is some brittleness there and they could be due a permanent collapse.

Is 50-over cricket the new Twenty20?

The mammoth totals being posted by the teams in the opening stint of the World Cup certainly indicate the changing face of 50-over cricket.  Two balls, new fielding restrictions and power plays have led to teams chasing 350+ scores rather than the composed 280’s of the past.  New shots, big bats and small grounds have pushed the realms of possibility and it’s conceivable we’ll see a double hundred in this World Cup and a triple century in ODI cricket before long.  Teams are no longer threatened by losing early wickets – they know by having more time and less fielders in the deep in the final overs they can make up for slow starts or rebuilding phases and still post match winning totals.

Yes, the game has changed and big totals are the norm, but there’s still plenty of tactic for the purists to assess.  It’s just a shame that one-sided games are exaggerated at times in the second innings (see Pakistan and England chases).

Today’s Match

Afghanistan v Bangladesh, Manuka Oval (Canberra – partly cloudy, bit of win), 2:30pm local time

Afghanistan – $4.20

Bangladesh – $1.25

After a long wait (save some sympathy for the UAE who have to wait a little longer) Afghanistan and Bangladesh get to compete in their first games of the World Cup and in the process wrap up the first round of games in Pool A.  Most of the cricketing world eye’s will be on whether Afghanistan can live up to their significant promise.  After a number of international tournaments, and with a handful of genuinely useful international players, this could be their big breakout.

We’re going out on a whim here and saying they’ll win this one too.

Today’s Bet

Afghanistan (To Win)

Odds courtesy of TopBetta

The Three Big Questions

Will the World Cup see a close game?

Arguably the Ireland v West Indies game was close, but none of the other games have.  Even then the Irish looked odds on through much of their chase in another indication that bat is set to dominate ball in this World Cup instalment.  Ireland’s win aside, the smaller cricketing nations will always struggle in the early rounds, and one could expect that the round robin stage will be less competitive than the quarters and semis.  However, the tournament needs some competitive games and some close finishes to hold the attention of fans during the prolonged opening salvo, before everyone starts pencilling in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India for the top four positions.

Is New Zealand’s top order weaker than we think?

Yesterday got pretty scary for the Black Caps and their high riding fans.  5/117 and then 137/7 are results not indicative of the type of runs the top order has been accumulating recently.  A deeper look at some of those recent results though might point to some top order woes that could have them edgy and other teams excited.  To go with yesterday’s implosion, the Black Caps had the following scores in their ODI series against Sri Lanka: 149/6, 183/6, 63/3, 82/4 and 141/6.  While it’s possible to argue the final totals were impressive and they got the job done, it can also be shown there is some brittleness there and they could be due a permanent collapse.

Is 50-over cricket the new Twenty20?

The mammoth totals being posted by the teams in the opening stint of the World Cup certainly indicate the changing face of 50-over cricket.  Two balls, new fielding restrictions and power plays have led to teams chasing 350+ scores rather than the composed 280’s of the past.  New shots, big bats and small grounds have pushed the realms of possibility and it’s conceivable we’ll see a double hundred in this World Cup and a triple century in ODI cricket before long.  Teams are no longer threatened by losing early wickets – they know by having more time and less fielders in the deep in the final overs they can make up for slow starts or rebuilding phases and still post match winning totals.

Yes, the game has changed and big totals are the norm, but there’s still plenty of tactic for the purists to assess.  It’s just a shame that one-sided games are exaggerated at times in the second innings (see Pakistan and England chases).

Today’s Match

Afghanistan v Bangladesh, Manuka Oval (Canberra – partly cloudy, bit of win), 2:30pm local time

Afghanistan – $4.20

Bangladesh – $1.25

After a long wait (save some sympathy for the UAE who have to wait a little longer) Afghanistan and Bangladesh get to compete in their first games of the World Cup and in the process wrap up the first round of games in Pool A.  Most of the cricketing world eye’s will be on whether Afghanistan can live up to their significant promise.  After a number of international tournaments, and with a handful of genuinely useful international players, this could be their big breakout.

We’re going out on a whim here and saying they’ll win this one too.

Today’s Bet

Afghanistan (To Win)

Odds courtesy of TopBetta

Cricket World Cup: Day 4 Recap

Posted on by Online Betting Pro

Just the one game in today’s Cricket World Cup action, and although the game saw the end of the 300+ batting first scores, it still provided plenty of entertainment.

Day 4 Results

New Zealand v Scotland

New Zealand did one of their disciplines exceeding well today to topple a brave Scotland side on a beautiful summers day in Dunedin.  It’s just a shame they did their other discipline so poorly.  New Zealand surprised a few, and disappointed the local crowd, by bowling first when little was expected to be on offer for the bowlers.

Trent Boult and Tim Southee made a mockery of that statement though and generated prodigious swing and off the pitch movement to have the Scots reeling at 12/4.  Trent Boult, fresh from picking up an $800,000+ IPL contract took two in two balls in his first over, and Southee followed suit with a possible hat-trick of his own just three overs later.  Scotland recovered thanks to Matt Machan and Richie Berrington, before losing their final 6 wickets for just 33 runs; all of those wickets falling to Daniel Vettori and Corey Anderson.  Either side of the 97 run partnership – which was actually really nicely done by the two half-centurions – Scotland were a bit of a shambles, failing to come to grips with the moving ball.

New Zealand were just as reckless at their turn at bat.  Whether the Black Caps were seeking to boost their Net Run Rate, or whether they got complacent, they threw wickets away with as much regularity as repeats of the famous sitcom Friends on television.  Even Mr Reliable, Kane Williamson, slogged wildly to lose his wicket, and only Grant Elliot can say he didn’t fall to a loose swish or swipe.

New Zealand go two-from-two but we imagine they’ll spend a fair bit of time in the nets before they face England in Wellington on Friday.  Scotland play England next too, on Monday.

New Zealand 146 for 7 (Williamson 38, Davey 3-40, Wardlaw 3-57) beat Scotland 142 (Machan 56, Berrington 50, Anderson 3-18, Vettori 3-24) by three wickets

Cricket World Cup: Day 4 Preview

Posted on by Online Betting Pro

Can a European minnow upset a test playing favourite for the second day in a row?  Find out below in our preview of today’s matchup where we also answer three big Cricket World Cup questions.

The Three Big Questions

Who is topping the run scoring ladder- have the markets moved?

All teams bar two (Bangladesh and Afghanistan) have played a game thus far, and five players have made centuries.  David Miller, Aaron Finch, JP Duminy, Virat Kohli and Lendl Simmons are those players and the odds reflect the early results.  The outright market sees Finch at $8, Kohli at $9 and New Zealanders, Williamson and McCullum also being tipped after first up fifties.  Hashim Amla, Ab de Villiers and Steven Smith (he’s gone out to $34.00 from $15) are the big losers, but with 8 games still to play there’s no cause for panic just yet.

Who is topping the wicket taking ladder- have the markets moved?

Three five wicket bags have also adjusted the top bowling markets (Steven Finn, Mitchell Marsh, Sohail Khan).  However, two of those bowling efforts were genuine surprises and haven’t resulted in significant market fluctuation.  Steven Finn, who is arguably the best out and out bowler of the front runners has shortened to $10.00, joining Mitchell Starc and Mitchell Johnson, who both took 2 wickets against England, as the front runners.  Daniel Vettori looks to be the smokey at $41.00.

Are the West Indies in crisis mode? 

Contract disputes, bilateral series walk offs, strange selection choices, and inconsistent form have undoubtedly been playing on the mind of the West Indies players over the last few months, and the weight of it all is clearly starting to affect their cricket.  The West Indies are looking increasingly ragged, and the laid back nature that has always been a feature of their play is now looking more like discontent.  Hopefully, Darren Sammy’s words have some meaning behind them – “It’s one game, we still believe.”

Today’s Matchup

New Zealand v Scotland, University Oval (Dunedin – fine weather all day), 11:00am local time

New Zealand – $1.01

Scotland – $17.00

New Zealand get the chance to lay down another World Cup marker in their second match against the unlikely Scots in Dunedin today.  Looking to build on a strong opening against Sri Lanka the Black Caps will need to be careful of a Scotland side that gave a New Zealand XI (featuring Brendon McCullum and Daniel Vettori) an almighty scare when they toured before Christmas.  The New Zealand XI side won that match by a solitary run, and Scotland could use that experience as the platform for a sneaky upset today.  Scotland have been excellent in their two warm up games, making 296 and 310 in their two efforts.

Today’s Bet

Martin Guptill to score more than 48.5 – $2.35

(Guptill plays well against lesser nations (sorry Scotland) and showed promise in his first up effort against Sri Lanka).

Odds from Sportsbet Australia.