Betting Opportunities on the Ashes

The Ashes is a special cricketing contest between England and Australia. It is one of crickets most established rivalries with matches being played for over 100 years. The match is played once every 18 to 30 months meaning that there is plenty of time for speculation and anticipation to build. In 1882 the Sporting Times reported that “English Cricket had died” after Australia beat England. It is reputed that the cricket stumps were burned and put in a small urn as a symbol of this defeat. The subsequent match was billed as “trying to reclaim the ashes” and the soul of English cricket allegedly taken when they were beaten in 1882. Recent Ashes results include England beating the Aussies in 2005 and Australia gaining revenge with a painful 5-0 whitewash in 2007. All eyes are on this series as England try and restore their pride.

In the first match only a dogged tail-end performance by England’s batsmen forced an unlikely draw. Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff’s inspired bowling performance helped give England victory in the second test. This good start has raised the profile of Cricket again with everyone watching to see if England can win the next test and give themselves a great chance to win the series.

Bwin.com has arranged a varied and interesting selection of betting opportunities which we can take a look at.

England is priced at 2.15 for the series with Australia out at 3.05. The draw is priced at 3.15. For the next test Bwin are heavily favouring a drawn match which is priced at 1.60. England is 5.00 to win outright and Australia is priced at 3.45 to win. It is widely expected that Australia will come out fighting as they are a team of skilled cricketers with renowned battling qualities. Their fast bowler Mitchell Johnson will most likely be replaced and with batters like Michael Clarke at their disposal they are capable of strong performances at the wicket and in the field. A draw would suit England, the weather forecast also suggests that getting the full five days play in may prove difficult, making the draw a lot more likely.

Australia is 1.60 to be in the lead after the first innings with England priced at 2.20. This may be of value as Australia did struggle with their fast bowling allowing England to take a large lead in the second test. If Johnson is not replaced a lot depends on him improving his performance if Australia are to be in the lead after the first innings.

England will also be suffering with the loss through injury of Kevin Pietersen. This is a big loss to their batting although his replacement Ian Bell is a good batter Pietersen offers that something extra as he is a special player. Bell is capable of scoring well but Australia will be buoyed by this development. Flintoff also bowled, albeit excellently, in the second test with a knee injury and has been reported to be icing his knee every night in anticipation for the third test. With his retirement from test cricket scheduled for after the series Flintoff will be doing all he can to go out with a series victory, but relying on his bowling may not pay off if his knee injury proves just too serious to be effective whilst fast bowling to Australia’s strong batsmen.

Both teams are priced at 2.00 to win the toss and bat and 11.00 to win the toss and choose to field. It is vitally important the batsmen start well with whoever wins the toss. If your bet for Strauss to score a century in the first innings pay off at 4.70 then England get that essential strong start, but if Ponting bats well for Australia and gets a century, which you can bet on at 4.00 then England are immediately under pressure. I believe whether the weather holds up may be decisive in the outcome of this test and possibly even the whole Ashes series. We will have more Ashes updates with updated prices after the test.

/ Malcolm Clarke