Filed under: Cricket, Betting, England Cricket, Tests, Australia Cricket
Large numbers of weary eyed people in Britain awoke this morning nervously switching on their television sets hoping against hope that England had made a reasonable start in their defence of the Ashes. Hope makes for a good breakfast but a bad supper.
Long suffering fans of England's cricket team weren't getting as carried away as the media when it came to talking up their hopes of successfully defending the Ashes.
The supporters are a hardy bunch, no strangers to disappointment, defeat and, er, crumbling defeats. They have suffered en masse watching their team capitulate, collapse and crumble on a depressingly familiar basis for the best part of three decades Down Under.
Sky Sports pundits in particular cast recent history carelessly to one side as they became increasingly confident and uncharacteristically bullish about our chances. "It's ours to lose," voiced a supremely confident Sir Ian Botham.
For all the media furore, and that preposterous Sky Sports advert that had England's players kitted out as the most unconvincing gladiators seen since Russell Crowe, one band of wizened judges refused to be sucked in by all the hype.
The bookies installed Australia even money favourites before a ball was bowled with the tourists at 2-1, despite England's form, preparations, and approach in the build up to this eagerly awaited series adopting an unusually professional outlook.
After the first day of the first Test had been completed those odds had shifted markedly. The Aussies haven't been beaten at fortress Brisbane for over 20 years so the 6-5 about them getting off to the best possible start and winning at The Gabba was snapped up by a lot of shrewdies. By the time birthday boy Peter Siddle's hat-trick helped the hosts dismiss England for just 260 on a flat pitch the Aussies were firmly, and typically, in the ascendancy.
Australia who reached an untroubled 25 without loss by stumps, are now just 4-/11 to take a 1-0 lead, with England as big as 4/1. The draw is 9/2.
In terms of the series result Stan James offer 5-6 about the Aussies reclaiming the little urn, in principle anyway. Those punters who snaffled the 5-6 about the Aussies winning in Brisbane will be delighted with that price, which is now beginning to looks as plump as Samit Patel, who was sacked a while ago from his post as England's 12th and 13th man.
Not that we should make the mistake of believing this Test or this series is as good as over.
The amount of claptrap written about Steve Harmison's opening ball of the last series Down Under setting the tone for the whole tour was a pile of absolute tosh. It was a bad ball granted, a bloody bad ball, but that's all it was - one ball. There were several more to be bowled in the series - and to be batted too. To believe England were doomed the very moment the errant cherry left Steve Harmison's wayward hand conveniently excuses the consistently poor contributions from the rest of the squad.
In hindsight Andrew Flintoff's appointment as captain was a mistake, he saw the trip as less of a battle and more as a beano.
Flintoff was one of England's greatest all-rounders - he was there for all rounds in fact - but on that trip woke up at the crack of ice and did little else during the day.
I travelled down to the last Test of the last series in Sydney back in 2007 having booked the bank balance busting sojourn trip full of misguided optimism, long before we went 4-0 down having produced the most abject and pathetic performances in living memory. And, unfortunately there's a rich tapestry of failures attached to England's cricket stored in my ever- diminishing reminiscence.
England did not win a single Test in that series despite being the world's specialists in winning dead rubbers. That's mainly because we get more opportunities than any other side.
Now is not the time to give up on England. Is there ever a time to give up on your country? Ask me again if we go 4-0 down.
Should England go on to lose this series, and there's rather a long way to go yet, no doubt revisionist historians will blame it as all but inevitable after skipper Andrew Strauss's third ball duck set the tone for things to come.
There'll be plenty of twists and turns in this match and indeed the series, most of which will happen sadly whilst I'm asleep. I'm not going to stay up until 4 am on day two again and wake up to a look of absolute disgust - my wife's not the best looking woman in the world.
But despite the terrible start I still have enough belief in this England team (what a fool I am) to believe they can hang on to the Ashes. I think they may well lose this Test but come back fighting to draw the series. And you can get a whopping 5-1 about that happening.
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Source: http://www.fanhouse.co.uk/2010/11/25/betting-england-australia-the-ashes-andrew-strauss/
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