Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Cricket: South Africa v Sri Lanka

Daily Result: £105.34

Bit of a strange game this one in as much as the wicket looked good, everyone thought it would produce runs but both sides struggled on it. South Africa batted first and grinded their way to 219-9 from their 50 overs - with 32 of those coming from a last two over slog. Chaminder Vaas produced some stunning figures of 10 overs, 3 maidens and two wickets for 16 runs and at the change of innings I honestly thought Sri Lanka would wrap the match up no problems. The Lankans currently have 4 of the top 5 rated ODI batsmen, they're in form and we've seen them play good attacking cricket in run chases during the ICC Champions Trophy when the team that has batted first struggled.

Consequently I was happy to keep my Lankan green, and Saffers red, at the change of innings and see what happened. I was expecting a good Lankan start, a quick drop in their price and a nice profit on the day. Unfortunately the run chase set off at a snail pace and when the first wicket fell I decided the win wasn't a formality and got out for around £100 red each team. The Lankan price had blown following the wicket and my plan was just to watch for a while and see what happened. I figured that with the odds near evens the pair it should still be pretty straight forward to run out with a profit.

And it should have been really as the Sri Lankan top order all but capitulated. But I ended up mistiming a few trades that eventaully cost me. The worst was probably laying South Africa when it looked like Jayawardene had settled at the crease and the Lankans at last looked like they were capable of making the chase. However, I hadn't counted on his suicidal run out and after that point in the game I was all red till the end.

Hat tip to Shaun Pollock, whose 10 overs for 2 wickets and 21 runs, though not quite as good as Vaas's figures, was still a great spell and good enough, in conjunciton with his 21 not out with the bat, to earn him the man of the match award.

Popular links: Betfair trading software .....Bet Angel.....Learn to trade

No comments: