Spirits Cricket

Online video Rating: four / five

Online video Score: three / five

Sports’ betting is a popular activity, and one of the most popular sports for people in this country to wager on is cricket – which reflects the special place that the game has in the hearts and minds of many in the UK. Cricket betting can take many forms, with people betting on test series’, individual one day matches, club and international cricket, and tours – like the one that the England team is due to make to New Zealand this summer.

This is a pretty extensive tour, which involves the England team playing three Test matches, three Twenty20 international matches and three one-day international matches and will represent England’s first visit to New Zealand since 2008. So far it is still too early for much information about the odds for these matches to be available on the sports betting sites, but the tour will offer cricket betting fans a wealth of potential areas to bet on.

For example, betting on Test matches allows you to wager on the result of the match itself, which side will take a first innings lead, which player from each team will take the most wickets during each innings, and even which side will win the coin toss before the start of the match. Read the rest of this entry »

The England cricket team has defeated New Zealand in the first test match which was played at Lord’s. England won the match by 170 runs.

Chasing down a target of 239 runs on the fourth day, the New Zealand team got all out on just 68 runs in 22.3 overs.

Stuart Broad was the stand out bowler for England. With his terrific swing bowling, he just destroyed the New Zealand batting order. He bowled 11 overs and dismissed 7 New Zealand batsmen.

Only a couple of New Zealand batsmen (BJ Watling and Neil Wagner) managed to get into the double figures. Watling scored 13, while, Wagner was the top scorer with 17.

In the post match presentation ceremony, the New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum looked shell shocked. He said, “At the start of the day’s play, we were in a good position to win the test match, but, all credit goes to England. They bowled superbly. We panicked after losing early wickets.”

“There are some positives to take out from this test match. Our bowlers were terrific in both the innings especially Tim Southee. Also, Ross looked in good nick in the first innings.”

“Our batting needs to improve for sure. We will be putting in a lot of hard work in the next few days and will come back hard in the next game.”

The winning captain Alastair Cook was looking very happy with the performance of his bowlers in the second innings. Cook said, “The match was evenly poised when the play began today. We wanted 30-40 more runs which we got this morning and then, Broady bowled a fantastic spell. He is a high class bowler and when he is in rhythm, it’s not easy to face him.”

The second test match of the series will start from 24^th of May at Headingley, Leeds.

Video Score: five / 5

The wicketkeeper batsman of England Cricket team, Jonny Bairstow, has said that he is not thinking about the Ashes series at the moment as it is too far ahead. He just wants to score more and more runs in the upcoming county Championship.

Bairstow was a part of the England team on the tours of New Zealand and India. But, he didn’t get many playing opportunities. He featured in 3 T20s and a couple of test matches only.

Bairstow couldn’t play a big test inning on those two tours, but, he is still expected to find a place in the England squad for the Ashes.

When asked if he is eager to play in the upcoming Ashes series, Bairstow said, “Well, that’s too far ahead. I have to play a few matches for Yorkshire before that and I am focussed on that at the moment.”

“You can’t be thinking about a series which is going to start after 4 months. You might pick up an injury in the meantime and you might be out for 4 months.”

“My aim right now is to score more and more runs for my county. If I do that, I don’t need to worry about my place in the national squad. I am going to be picked if I am consistent in domestic circuit.”

When asked if he is disappointed that he didn’t get too many playing opportunities in India and New Zealand, Bairstow said, “Our test team is very stable and there is no place up for grabs at the moment. So, I am going to get in only if somebody gets injured or is out due to some reason. But, whenever I play, I need to make that count.”

“I played one test match each on both those tours and missed out in both test matches. That’s the most disappointing thing.”