After India’s 8 wicket victory of Australia in the 1st Test, the bookmakers have slashed the odds for an Indian series win in to 1/4 (more information about bookmakers in general can be found in this Sportsbook review).
The bookmakers also – unsurprisingly – have India as the firm favourites to win the 2nd Test, at a general price of between 5/6 and Even money.
It all started off so well for Australia, and from a neutral point of view I was enjoying what seemed to be a competitive Test match, that was until MS Dhoni got going.
I certainly didn’t see that innings coming from the Indian skipper, to be honest I didn’t think he had it in him given all the pressure and blame that was heaped on him after the England test series.
In fairness to Australia I don’t think they could have too many complaints about their 1st innings total. Ok, maybe they should have got to over 400, but 380 was a respectable total that they must have been happy with. It certainly had them well in the game.
They were also well in the game when India were 196/4, 372/7 and even at 406/8, it was only then that the match went away from them.
Moving on to the 2nd Test and looking at things from an Aussie point of view, I’m really not sure which way the wind is blowing.
One one hand I don’t think they should be too disheartened. They were just beaten by a great innings from Dhoni, and they won’t come up against that sort of innings every Test match. And England got thrashed in the 1st Test and look what happened after that.
On the other hand though, Australia had to rely yet again on a century from Michael Clarke, how long can he keep on carrying the batting? He has been brilliant over the last 12-18 months, but he needs some support (like Alastair Cook for England, their outstanding form won’t go on forever).
And where is that support going to come from? Mike Hussey has retired, Watson is good for a 40, is Phil Hughes going to cut it in India, (probably not in my view), and I can also see David Warner struggling out there.
Overall Australia didn’t do quite as badly as the result suggests, but I still feel they have a lot of questions to answer over the next few weeks.
From a cricket betting perspective, I think I will be waiting and watching how things go before I get involved. I know that is being a bit over cautious, but I don’t really see an obvious value bet at the moment.