West Indies v England Second ODI: Slow pitch makes for more betting thrills

ODI preview / Ed Hawkins / 21 March 2009 / Leave a Comment

After a bizarre end to the first One Day International between the West Indies and England, Ed Hawkins wonders what the second match might hold in store...

Those who were awaiting confirmation that West Indies coach John Dyson is no relation to James Dyson, the genius who invented the best-selling Dyson hoover, got their answer on Friday. John, it would appear though, is a sucker.

Dyson's terrible blunder of reading the D-L rules incorrectly cost West Indies the match. He believed his side to be ahead of the par score of 247 but they were in fact two runs behind. Dyson demanded his players take the offer of bad light to safeguard the 'victory' but he admitted he was "looking down the wrong column" on his stats sheet.

"I'm not going to kill him," said West Indies captain Chris Gayle. Maybe not, but a few irate bettors might be tempted. The contest at Providence in Guyana was proving to be a classic 50-over contest with supremacy flip-flopping every over.

West Indies had appeared to be a beaten side before Shivnarine Chanderpaul's withering, and potentially career-ending, assault on Steve Harmison. He took 26 off the paceman's seventh over and the hosts were suddenly favourites. But England hit back and before Dyson began flapping physically and mentally with his pieces of paper, West Indies needed 27 from 22 balls.

The two sides meet at the same venue on Sunday and if one can forgive Dyson, it could well be another thrilling betting heat. The reason being that the pitch, slow and sluggish, is perfect for close, low-scoring nailbiters.

Chanderpaul aside, batsmen found it difficult to time the ball and when you have a situation where bowlers have the ability to subdue the big strikers, sides struggle to accelerate towards a target. Indeed, from the seven matches played at the stadium, five have been won by the side batting first.

The best advice for the second one-day international is to get with the team which bats first. It would be a major surprise if the surface was not exactly the same as it was for game one with batting at its best in the first 10 overs or so.

Thanks to Dyson's brain surge, focus has been taken away from a mistake England made which threatened to cost them the match. It was the same error they have been making since time began it seems: not going hard enough in the powerplay overs.

They scored only 91 runs in the 20 power play overs when fielders are forced into the circle. That is not even five runs an over. At the start of Chanderpaul's attack, in four balls West Indies had scored more runs than England managed in five overs of their final powerplay.

Bettors need to be aware that thunderstorms are forecast for Guyana on Sunday, increasing the likelihood that (easy there, John) the D-L method could again come into play. One also needs to bear in mind that batsmen struggle when having to restart their innings following a rain break.

It happened to England on Friday as they lost momentum and Nasser Hussain, the former England captain, provided a great quote for the betting notebook on such occasions. "It doesn't matter if it's a three or four minute delay, as a batsman its like starting your innings again."

The top runscorer market should again favour players like Paul Collingwood and Chanderpaul but Gayle and Kevin Pietersen, the jollies for the West Indies and England markets respectively, should be avoided at all costs because they were stifled by the slow wicket.

West Indies are out to [2.80] for the series with England as short as [1.61]. The draw, with the forecast as it is in Guyana, might appeal at [13.50]. The home side have a poor record when losing the first game of a series. They have failed to comeback in five of their last six, although the odd one out is the 2007 resurgence against England in 2007.