Sunday, August 13, 2006

Twenty20 cricket final trading

Daily Result: £1401.62

I don't like cricket - I Love it!! Especially this Twenty20 malarky. Today was just a fantastic day of cricket trading and was easily my most profitable day since starting the blog. I try not to get too emotional about trading results but it's fair to say I'm more than a little chuffed by today! Contributes a hefty chunk to the costs of the big day too.

Twenty20 finals day involves three matches from the same ground. Two semi finals and the final. I traded all three games and was pretty consistent results wise winning £432.72, £441.01 and £527.89. Each of those represented the biggest win I'd ever had on Twenty20 since doing the blog. Now I didn't eat three shredded wheat this morning, or anything crazy like that, so I'm not quite sure what the hell happened. But, whatever it was, long may it continue!!

Actually, I guess the truth is each game was just perfect to trade in it's own way. Good first innings knocks from the underdogs followed by a market that simply thought each score wasn't good enough to win. Think about the price scenario for that and it's easy to see why the games were great for trading.

Semi Final 1 - Essex v Leicestershire
(£432.72)

This game followed the exact pattern outlined above. Leicestershire, the underdogs, won the toss and had a knock. OK, they made a slow start but their total of 174 leaving Essex 8.7 an over to win, on a ground where 160 is a par first innings score, was good going. So what the hell Essex were doing quite such hot favourites I don't know. Especially as Leicestershire were going to open with Broad, who, as well as being the most exciting of the current crop of potential future England bowlers, also has the most economical Twenty20 figures in the country. In the end Broad bowled well but it was Snape who made the real difference and Leicestershire won by 23 runs.

Semi Final 2 - Surrey v Notts
(£441.01)

If the odds were wrong in the Essex game they were just plain crazy in the Surrey v Notts game. Sure, Surrey were always going to start big faves. But at some point the facts have to take over from opinions and colour the market accordingly! To cut a long story short Notts, the underdogs, won the toss and batted. They made made 176, again above par, leaving Surrey needing 8.85 runs an over. Now don't get me wrong. Surry have a good batting line up. But there is no way on this earth they should have been 1.7!! I laid them, along with half the Betfair cricket forum it seems, and set myself a bail out point so I could still keep green both sides incase they made good progress.

The Surrey innings was a disaster. Sidebottom put in an awesome early bowling spell and Surrey collapsed to 10/3 off 3 overs, progressing to 16/4. Of course, the odds had swung hugely. I already had a £500 liability on Surrey. The obvious move was to lump the rest of my trading balance on Notts but I was happy with my position, know how quickly Twenty20 can change, and just continued with caution.

Ramprakash and Mahmood provided some embarrassing comedy moments as the Surrey pair seemed incapable of taking a simple run without confusion. So it was no surprise when, having already been let off following two dropped catches in two balls, Ramprakash was run out in ridiculous fashion. Chris Read, triumphantly returning to county cricket after his test call up, also raised a smile. After twice missing a stumping in the same ball Read suffered the extra insult of realising he'd also had a tooth knocked out somewhere along the line. No doubt Geraint Jones is starting to believe there is a god afterall!

Anyway, Surrey battled on in between losing wickets. They were awarded 6 penalty runs because Notts didn't get through their overs quickly enough - a bit harsh seeing as Read was missing a tooth and happily dribbling blood - but it made no difference. Surrey didn't even last 20 overs finishing 133 all out from 19.1.

Was interesting to see that some others made considerably more than me on this match. One well known Betfair forumite made a £15k lay of Surrey at around 1.7 when I did. Made a hefty £12,375 in about 15 minutes! Nice work if you can get it!!. And a timely reminder that though I'm pleased with what I'm making on the blog there are others who are far more serious about trading than I am and no doubt know far more than I do.

The Final - Nottinghamshire v Leicestershire (£527.89)

The market worked a little differently in this one. The teams were around evens the pair beofre the toss with Leicestershire shortening when they won it and chose to bat. Have to say I was impressed with their innings. I was running an over by over comparison with their earlier match against Essex. They seem to play to a very clear plan and the innings were remarkably similar in terms of how many runs were scored and when. Though they were generally slightly ahead of their innings against Essex throughout. Anyway, I'd got some 2.1 Leicestershire and just followed the price down trading as I went. At the half way stage I was £235 green Leics and £100 green Notts.

Notts actually made a pretty good effort at the chase and there was plenty of trading opportunity as they fell from 2.5 to 1.5. I was keeping my green pretty level and then got a little lucky. I saw Broad was coming back on so layed Notts at 1.64. Broad dismissed Hussey and within 5 balls people were jumping over each other to lay Notts at 3+. Job done!

Did the same thing when I saw Cummins coming back on though this time laid Leicestershire. He'd been very expensive early on and continued to be going for 6 4 . 4 2 etc etc. As the rain began to fall it was getting harder for Leicestershire to bowl and field. Notts were still in the game so I levelled out at over £500 green the pair and just sat back to enjoy the rest of the game. And a fantastic finish it was too - right down to the no ball controversy on the last ball!


Anyway, after the last big win I had I followed it up with a big loss. Going to be careful on the next market I trade, forget about the sums involved today and just go back tot he basics and aim for small consistent wins again.

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