Spirits Cricket

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. (more…)

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.

The captain of the England Cricket team, Alastair Cook, has said that the wayward bowling of the England bowlers in the death overs proved to be costly for the team in the second ODI match against India.

The Indian batsmen scored 110 runs in the last 10 overs at Kochi. Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja were the ones who took the England bowlers apart in the slog overs. They smashed the ball to every corner of the ground and took India to a total of 285. That was a very good total on that pitch which was a bit low and slow.

The England team struggled against the Indian bowlers in reply and got all out on just 158 runs.

Talking to the reporters in the press conference after the match, Cook said, “We were in a very good position till the 40^th over, but, in the last 10 overs, we gave away too many runs which proved to be costly at the end.”

“I think we didn’t hit the right kind of length during the death overs. We kept bowling over pitched deliveries and kept getting smashed all over the park.”

When asked about the batting of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Cook said, “He is a great player. He is one of the best finishers going around. It’s very hard to bowl to him during the death overs. He can hit good deliveries out of the park. The helicopter shot that he plays is just outstanding. I don’t think anybody else can play that shot effectively.”

When asked about the performance of the English batsmen, Cook said, “The ball was moving around in the first few overs and we got some outstanding deliveries from Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The spinners also got a bit more turn in the second half and it was really hard work for the batsmen. But, we should have batted better than this.”

Video clip Score: five / 5

Ian Bell has said that the England players shouldn’t think much about the defeat in the warm up match against India A. India A beat England by a profound margin of 53 runs in the first warm up match played at Palam A Ground. Bell was the only England batsman who faced the India A bowlers with confidence in that match. He played a fantastic knock of 91 runs off just 89 balls.

Talking to the reporters after the match, Bell said, “Yes, we didn’t manage to do well as a batting unit today, but, we shouldn’t be too much worried about it. It was only a warm up game and it has nothing to do with the result of the series. The important thing is to learn from the mistakes that we made today and should not repeat those mistakes in the ODI series.”

When asked about his brilliant knock, Bell said, “I tried to play the normal game and treated the ball according to its merit. I didn’t find the pitch hard to bat on. The bounce was nice and the ball was coming on to the bat. It was a very good track for the stroke players. I waited for the loose deliveries and whenever I got them, I made sure that I put them away.”

“I think the shot selection of few of our batsmen was not right. It was not such a huge total. It was a gettable target and we didn’t need to take unnecessary risk, but, we tried to be over aggressive and lost the wickets.”

When asked at which position he would like to bat in the upcoming ODI series, Bell said, “I like opening the batting, but, for the sake of the team, I am ready to bat at any position.”

The former England captain, Nasser Hussain, has said that Alastair Cook led his team from the front in the first test match against India and showed his team mates how to negotiate the Indian spinners.

The England captain, Alastair Cook, scored a fantastic hundred in England’s second innings of the first test match against India, but, he didn’t manage to prevent the defeat of his team. England lost the test match by 9 wickets and got trailed by 0-1 in the series.

Talking to the reporters after the match, Hussain said, “It was a great knock by the skipper. The way he applied himself in the second innings was just superb to watch. When he had made his debut, he was not that good at playing spin. But, he has made some adjustments in his game in the last few years and has converted himself into a great player of spin. He likes to play off the back foot more often than not and he is a great judge of length. He plays the ball very late which helps him in getting the placement right.”

“It is certainly one of the best innings that I have seen in recent years. The pitch was not easy to bat. There was uneven bounce out there and the odd ball was turning a great deal. So, it needed a bit of skill to bat for that long.”

“Prior was fantastic as well. He is regarded as one of the best players of spin in the England camp and he showed why he is considered so. He deserved the hundred, but, the poor fellow was done by a classic left arm spinner. But, it was a great effort by the wicket keeper batsman. I am looking forward to seeing him bat in the next three test matches.”