Famous last words here, it looks likes England’s Test match now, but such has been the up and down nature of this Ashes Test match so far, I don’t think that can be said with any certainty.
The latest Ashes betting odds on the 1st Test are England 1/5 – The Draw 66/1 – Australia 10/3 (free £25 bet for new customers)
Put it another way and into a cricket betting perspective, I’ve backed many a 1/5 shot over the years, as some of them are buying money… but I’m not going near this one.
I expect England to win, but I’m not certain as this is just one of those Test matches where it seems better to just expect the unexpected. In the cold light of day, I don’t see Australia getting near 300, but matches like this can play with the mind, so I’m steering well clear.
I did try and do a bit of cricket trading on Betfair on the 2nd innings runs markets. At the start of Day 4, I placed a bet of England scoring under 375 runs at long odds, so lost there. I then did a bit of trading on the Australian 2nd innings runs market, I initially backed them to score under 200 runs, but I had to go out yesterday afternoon, so I placed a back of over 200 runs before I went out, ensuring a small profit either way (assuming it got matched, which it did). I would have left it and (hopefully) traded it for a better price had I been staying in.
I also placed a lay of Under 300 runs for Australia, there was a few pounds sitting there looking to back it at 1.6, so I obliged and accepted the bet. I will try and cover my loss for a small bet when the market picks up as Day 5 starts.
The innings runs’ markets have been fairly quiet so far, I know they generally are, but I was expecting a bit more activity in them during an Ashes series. Maybe they will pick up a bit in the 2nd Test, they can give cricket betting punters an alternative market to get involved in when the ‘outright winner test match betting market’ is not offering much value.