Betting on a Lords draw - England vs West Indies first test

Did anyone stick with that England tour to the West Indies? Apart from one appaling collapse from England, every game seemed to have draw written all over it - oh, apart from the ones where England were one wicket away from winning. And even then, you never had faith that the likes of Steve Harmison were ever going to be able to get one of those tailenders out.

England's inability to pick up wickets was a constant problem for Andy Flower and Andrew Strauss, who seem to have hit upon a decent working partnership. Harmison is thankfully out, and England have turned to Bresnan and Onions for youthful exuberance. Whether they can help get England twenty wickets against a decent Windies batting lineup remains to be seen.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan are more than capable blockers, while captain Chris Gayle weighs in at the top of the order. They have runs in them - but once more - the bowling lineup is inexperienced and erratic.

So that's why I'm taking them to bat England out to a draw, at 13/10, with Chanderpaul an understandingly ungenerous 5/4 to be their top batsman in the first innings.

Further afield, I've been watching the IPL 20/20 from South Africa with bemusement - it's just not cricket, is it - all this dancing and prancing and sixes being renamed as 'DLF maximums'. It's hard to know which part of it makes me most sick, but then again, there's some cricket out in the middle and some of it has been quite interesting. I've always been a big fan of Shane Warne and his Rajasthan Royals - reigning champions - look to have got their act together, especially with that slogger Yusuf Pathan coming in lower down the order to knock runs around for fun. They're currently 8/1 to win the whole thing, which is very long considering their recent form. Back 'em for fun. After all, it's not real cricket, it's just fun. Keep telling yourself that and it might just go away.

Do it with a bet 10 get 20 free bet offer from Paddy Power.

published: 4th May 2009 by Free Bet Bookmaker

Comments

Something to say about this article? Post your comments below!