Twenty20 finals day

Yesterday's Result: £408.06

It's one of my favourite days of the cricket season and yesterday's Twenty20 finals bash didn't disappoint. Blazing sun, cracking sixes, breath taking fielding, a hattrick, some last over thrillers and triumphant underdogs. Making the day even sweeter was somewhere in amongst it all I even scraped some profit together too. Though I did also manage to have the most expensive cup of tea I'm ever likely to have...

Semi-final 1: Lancashire v Gloucestershire £72.13

Oh Lanky Lanky. How could it all go so wrong? Superstars properly pummelled by an unfancied team. Guess some would say that's the answer right there. ;-)

To be fair Lancashire didn't get off to the best of starts. Their leading Twenty20 batsmen Mal Loye seized up with back spasms just before the match and was ruled out while just minutes before Dominic Cork was hunched over in agony after taking a ball in the, well, balls.

Flintoff replaced Loye as an opener but failed to fire. In fact only Brad Hodge among the batsmen really showed any proper form and as the wickets fell the market's love affair with Lancashire began to lose its shine. The average 1st innings score at Edgbaston in Twenty20 is 163. The average first innings score on Twenty20 finals day is 158. Lancashire scraped to 148. Still, they had a host of star bowlers to fall back on including Murali and Flintoff, as well as the likes of Anderson, Cork, Chapple and Keedy.

Asked at the change of innings what I thought on the Betfair cricket forum I said I was equalish small green, would put a free bet on Gloucestershire, the Lancashire price would disappear over the hill if Spearman got going but I was waiting to see what would happen early doors in the run chase before getting too involved. As it turns out Gloucestershire strolled it winning by 8 wickets with 19 balls to spare. Spearman effectively steered Gloucestershire home with 86 off 55 balls. And as Anderson was in the middle of going for 23 off his second over I was starting to lump on. So how did I make just £72.13 - just a few quid more than my equal green at the change of innings? What happened?

My future father in law. That's what happened! Emma was out and he turned up on the off chance we were in. Was riding his bike near by, with my future brother in law, and they popped in. No problems with that. Always got time for family, they're a good laugh and we all get on. So anyway, I obviously levelled out equal green from the positions I'd literally just opened and made the teas.

They were only here for 40 minutes or so. By the time I got back Gloucestershire were 1.01. Turns out it was one of those great markets where the price more or less went into freefall. My favourite type really. Just about one way traffic, very low risk and the perfect scenario to let winning positions run. I've worked out roughly what I'd have expected to make on the game. I won't go into figures suffice to say that was without doubt the most expensive cup of tea I'll ever have! And, to top it all, they left before Emma got back!

Semi-final 2: Sussex v Kent £658.31

Kent drive me crazy. Never a team to do things the easy way their games are often rollercoaster rides and this one was no exception. Last year's Pro40 shows the team doesn't know when to give up graciously and lose a match - but is more than happy to try and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. They're at it again this season too. The fact that both teams traded below 1.25 is enough in itself to indicate massive swings in fortunes in this match. The game also had its fair share of other flip flops too. Not one for the faint-hearted and I switched positions a few times on this one.

Sussex batted first and got off to a blistering start. 61 from the first 6 overs, though after 5 overs the run rate was 11.8! I always say that as a yardstick 60 from 6 or better is a superb start for the batting team and the plunge in the Sussex price reflected it. After starting out bullish on Kent I'd switched and was moderate green Sussex and larger red Kent.

It all changed when Kent started to take the pace off the ball, it became harder to get away, and under the pressure two quick wickets fell. First Wright was caught and then Goodwin was run out attempting a crazy second run. At that stage I dumped two-thirds of my Kent red at around 1.68ish. The rest of the innings was all about some superb Kent fielding, particularly the run out of Adams for the 5th wicket. Sussex went from 60/0 to 102/6 and given the collapse must have been happy to scrape to 140. By then I'd long switched to Kent again. They don't make it easy for us!

Kent's reply got off to a flyer. There were 6 4s before a single, wide, bye or no ball was registered. Denly again did his England credentials no harm and Key gave a batting masterclass hitting 68 off 54 balls to steer Kent home not out. In true Kent style though they left it close even after that cracking start. So close that with 30 needed from around 25 balls I layed them at 1.13 after the third wicket fell. As I said at the time on the Betfair forum I've seen Kent too many times not to! Us traders are nothing but fickle. :-) Especially when Kent are involved!

I wasn't let down. Two overs later I layed Sussex at 1.55. And from memory they went even lower. Kent were up to their usual tricks. But ended up winning the match after needing 9 off the last over. Naved's two front foot no balls for free hits not helping Sussex's cause.

So that was that. One to raise the blood pressure in true Kent style. And a cracking game of Twnety20 to boot. Superb stuff.

The final: Gloucestershire v Kent 323.16

Had a shocker on this one. Got into a right mess trying to push a position too far and ended up with one of the worst looking books I've had in a long time. At one stage my red on Sussex was around 39 times the size of my green on Kent! Now that's a proper fuck up in anyone's book!! Sure, at that stage Kent were sub 1.2 and it was near the end of the match. And even a Kent wicket at that stage would have left me well within the maximum loss I allow myself on any event. Still, it's not the type of situation I want to experience too often - especially with Kent seemingly doing their best to lose the match yet again. Eventually, as Kent decided to hand the advantage back to Sussex, I had to level out at around £500 red the pair and by the end of the match was pretty happy to only drop £323.

It was all going so well to start with too. Another quick start from Gloucestershire, the batting team, though this time with Marshall rather than Spearman doing the damage. Again though Kent managed to restrict the batting team after the initial fielding restrictions and then a hatrick from McLaren really put the squeeze on. Old Dickie Bird would have been hopping like a good un. The score was 111!

Fantastic to see a hatrick any time, let alone the finals day of Twenty20. But unfortunately it was also the cause of my loss. As the 3 wickets fell obviously the Kent price did too. I made a classic mistake and got involved too deeply in comparison to my existing book thinking that was effectively the match. I always had in mind I could get out but a poor spell from Malinga shortly after blew the price out quickly and I ended up sitting on a pretty awful position until the change of innings.

I was concerned at that stage. I fancied Kent to make the 147 they needed to win. However, an early wicket would have taken me past my maximum allowable loss per event. So after considering it all I dumped just about all my Kent green. Too much of a risk to keep the position open. Would have broken bankroll rules. And would have left me down on the day. Was time to just bite the bullet. For the most part for the rest of the match I just sat waiting for a few key moments to get involved while hoping Kent won.

Despite Key going earlyish this time round good knocks from Denly again, Walker and Stevens eventually saw Kent Home. But the last few overs were total carnage in the market. Kent went to 1.13 before blowing it big time. Was all happening so fast but I'm pretty sure Gloucestershire also traded at 1.13 before the end of the game with huge swings in the market.

With 4 overs to go I wasn't liking Kent's progress and levelled out red for around £500 each side. From there on it was crazy. Yoyoing odds. Opportunities to win or lose small fortunes. Panic. I got in some lays of Kent on dot balls, though always keeping within the max loss limit, and in the penultimate over, with Gloucestershire massive odds on, I was looking at a nice green on them, but an unacceptable red on Kent. I decided to level out again, accept the loss and enjoy the last over. Pleased I did as Greenidge got tonked and a no ball finally handed the win to Kent with 3 balls to spare. Thrilling stuff. Which, with 78p on the cup winner market left me with the £408.06 for the day.

So, Kent won only their third domestic title in 29 years - and to top the day off the Kent Spitfire also won the Mascot Race. Ironically beating Lanky the Giraffe by a neck! Cricket also ran out a winner. It was a brilliant day's entertainment. Exciting to watch and leaving me salivating at the prospect of the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup when I get back from honeymoon.