This games seems more like a proper Test match, compared with the 1st couple of days at Trent Bridge. One theme that seems to be carrying on from Trent Bridge though is the contrast in batting, with another brilliant under pressure century from Ian Bell, alongside the constant chucking away of wickets.
Okay, Aussie fans may well rightly suggest that some of the wickets were down to Michael Clarke’s captaincy, and in a way they were. For Clarke’s plans to wok though, someone has generally got to fall into the trap in a naive way! And Clarke certainly didn’t ‘plan’ Jonny Bairstow’s wicket in that manner.
Not taking anything away from Clarke though, he made some bold moves yesterday and they paid off. I didn’t think dropping Mitchell Starc was right, and I was proved wrong as that paid off with Ryan Harris taking two early wickets. So all in all, it was a god day for Clarke and the Australians.
It all still hasn’t made any real difference in the cricket betting though, as – like this time yesterday – the bookmakers still have Australia as the outsiders to win this Test match.
The latest Ashes Test match betting has England at Evens, the draw at 11/4 and Australia at 9/4.
England started the Test match as Even money favourites, so even though they look well below par with their 1st innings score (so far), the punters still see them as a reasonably good bet.
I did a bit of trading on Betfair yesterday, and using a £100.00 float I have managed to get myself £18 green on both England and Australia, and £22 green on the draw.
I made this from backing and then laying the draw in the afternoon when Bairstow and Bell were batting, and then from backing Australia late on in the day when they drifted out too around 7 to 8/1, and then laying them after they took late wickets.
I expected a positive result at Trent Bridge, but I’m not as certain here. With a gun to my head, I would say there will be a result, mainly due to the poor batting of both sides.
Not easy to call which way the market will swing today. So will be a watching brief to start with, and maybe a look at the 1st innings runs market (on Betfair) for a bit of interest.
