Incredible cricket scenes

Daily Result: £510.03

Wow. What an incredible game today's match between Sri Lanka and South Africa turned out to be. First up we had Charl Langeveldt bowling an amazing triple wicket maiden as Sri Lanka spectacularly collapsed at the end of their innings - losing their last four wickets for 1 run. Trying to match that Murali narrowly missed out on a hat trick as a bat pad appeal turned out to be just a pad.

But undoubtedly topping the lot was Lasith Malinga taking four wickets in four balls at the end of the South African innings! An absolutely staggering ODI first which nearly completed what would have been one of the greatest victories of all time. South Africa were cruising to their 210 run target for victory at 206 for 5. They needed just 4 runs with 5 wickets in hand before Malinga's superhuman effort. In the end the final wicket partnership somehow lasted 11 balls before Peterson edged the ball for two runs and victory. Absolutely astonishing scenes. And one would imagine also very relieving for the people who had layed Sri Lanka for £65 at 1000! (£130 was matched) Let alone the people who'd ploughed tens of thousands into South Africa at 1.01!! A truly awesome finish. And people still say cricket is boring?!!

So it may come as a surprise, especially with today's healthy profit, that I actually lost around £25 on the match! Got my first trade of the game wrong and after sorting some of that out there wasn't much to be done before the South African run chase. I followed the market down as they progressed nicely until I had a small green South Africa, a moderate red Sri Lanka, the price was about 1.03 and I switched over to watch the football.

So flick between the football and cricket I did. Luckily I flicked to the cricket as Malinga was taking the ball to try and bowl his hat trick. I went to lay the 1.01 that was still available on South Africa to green out (should really have done this a long time before) and, of course, he got the wicket. The price flew out and I settled for a small all round red rather than risk a larger one if a miracle happened. All I can say was I was very pleased with that decision when he took another wicket the next ball, the Saffers were reduced to their last wicket, there was another seismic shift in odds and there was a serious brown trouser moment for all the short odds backers and long odds layers! People on the Betfair forum were actually saying they were shaking it was so dramatic. No doubt helped by the fear of facing the rather large red figures many must have had on their screens. Simply stunning stuff.

In comparison the end of the West Indies v Australia match, carried over to today as a result of yesterday's rain, was dull in comparison. The West Indies needed 323 from 50 overs and simply never looked like making it. In the end Australia wrapped up a straight forward 103 run victory. This was the match I made all today's money on though. I was £150 green either side overnight and after watching the first few overs took a view that Australia's price was too big in the mid 1.2 range and backed them accordingly. The price duly fell steadily until it hit 1.01 and I simply followed it down. With a virtually impossible run rate the match was effectively over a long time before the last Windies wicket fell in the 46th over and the Aussies made it 4 out of 4 Super 8's points.