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Twenty20 betting: a completely different game so adjust your betting accordingly...

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South Africa v New Zealand: Kiwis are the value wager in the shortest form of the game...

Those who like to bet on cricket but have avoided getting to grips with Twenty20 should think again. There is no doubt that this format is here to stay.

When India won the inaugural World Championship in South Africa, the biggest cricket audience in the world was converted overnight. Not one but two Twenty20 leagues are being set up in that country and in the next few years, the format will spread over the fixture list like a rash. Traditionalists might splutter and complain but money is talking and it pretty much drowns out every other voice these days.

From a betting point of view, the unpredictability of the format can make it difficult to get a handle on and markets for these matches can be volatile. But there are opportunities to be exploited if you do your homework. The main thing to remember is that you are dealing with an entirely different entity to the longer game.

A perfect case in point is the South Africa v New Zealand Twenty20 on Friday. The Black Caps were crushed in the Test series, their best bowler has flown home and several members of the squad are suffering stomach complaints. You might expect that in a Test match, they would be long odds against. But not for Twenty20.

Both these sides have similar records in this version of the game and home advantage will be less of a factor given that New Zealand reached the semi-finals of the World Championship here a couple of months ago, whereas the home side did not. So the odds for New Zealand are much shorter than they would be in a Test match. However, there is still some value to be had and as I would have them on the [2.5] mark, I will be backing them at the current [3.15].

Personally, I think the format is good for cricket. There is an obvious danger of overexposure given that administrators will milk this particular cash cow for all its worth and aesthetically, a version of the game which embraces cheerleaders, franchises and blaring music is something of a culture shock. But the positives outweigh the negatives.

Twenty20, if handled correctly, can attract huge new audiences to the game and that can only be a good thing. And far from eroding the techniques of cricketers, I believe that Twenty20 will enhance and sharpen batting and fielding skills. In the 35 years since limited overs cricket began, scoring rates in Test matches have been increasing steadily and I believe that Twenty20 will continue that trend.

And the charge that Twenty20 encourages mindless slogging isn't true. It puts a premium on clean hitting and intelligent shot selection. Class batsmen who know their game inside out and have the experience to adapt to circumstances have thrived in the format. The top performers in Twenty20 include familiar names such as Hayden, Symonds, Graeme Smith, Ponting, Jayasuriya and Yuvraj Singh.

A quick study of which batsmen do well at this level suggests there is some value to be had in the top batsmen markets for the game on Friday. Brendon McCullum is the top averaging New Zealander and as an opener, he will have more time than any of the others to amass a score. He rates a definite bet at [5.0]. For South Africa, though Smith and Gibbs will be all the rage, they aren't in great nick and I would go for Justin Kemp at [5.7] an intelligent hard hitter who is the top South African batsman in Twenty20, averaging over 50.

And for those who like to dabble on an outsider, there is an intriguing possibility at bigger odds. Of the 46 Twenty20 matches completed to date, two have been tied, or to put it another way, 4.34%. A rough and ready translation into odds suggests that the price on a tie should be somewhere around 23.0. But the tie is currently trading at [38.0] and at that price, I will be staking a small amount on these two sides finishing level in Johannesburg on Friday.

• Cricket
• Twenty20