Cricket Betting – No upsets in World Cup so far!

So should we be worried? So far India, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Australia have hammered Bangladesh, Kenya, Canada and Zimbabwe respectively.

There is sure to be an upset somewhere in this tournament, when is it going to come? There is a team out there who is in the middle of a rough trot and is just waiting to be embarrassed by one of the so called lesser nations.

Who’s playing tomorrow then? England, oh no – against Netherlands. Surely England won’t be the first team to slip up, definately not against Netherlands. Afterall, who the hell loses to them?

Seriously though, England may well be in the middle of a dodgy patch, but the team that takes to the pitch in Nagpur tomorrow is a million miles away from the team that turned up in body only at Lord’s on that fateful night in 2009.

Thankfully I was working late that night, so I missed watching the humiliation live on TV, instead listening to it on the radio in my van.

Not only did we not know how to pick a T20 team back then, we didn’t know basics like what to do when we won the toss and there was rain in the air (although we lost the toss that night, it was later in the tournament when we won the toss against Windies and Collingwood elected to bat first), we couldn’t play the game at all, it was a case of organised chaos, the team was in total disarray.

I know that was T20 and this is 50 over cricket, but we haven’t been to clever at this over the years either.

But there is far more time for superior class to show over 50 over cricket, and this England side is miles ahead of the 2009 limited overs vintage. Our bowling/fielding unit is as strong as any teams in the world in my view, and we also have mature leaders throughout this team.

Like my pre Ashes views – I believe England’s tournament chances depend on how many of the batsmen turn up for the party. If we can have 2 or 3 in form, then I think we are in with a bit of a chance.

We also need to get on some pitches that offer the bowlers a bit, if we can, then we have the bowling to exploit the conditions, assuming they are all fit that is. I can’t believe that Andy Flower would take too many chances in that department though.

The bookmakers seem to also take this view that England are too strong. They have England as short priced favourites with 1/20 at Coral the best price. They are as short as 1/40 with some firms.

The Dutch can be backed at 28/1 on Betfair to cause another upset. I’m not sure what odds they were at Lord’s in 2009, it would be interesting to know.