Cricket Best Bets : Wrap up and Big Bash Finals

I only wrote about 2 Cricket bets this Summer but they were big ones. I guess it would be fair to say that I’ve been focusing more on other things and maybe I haven’t done as well as previous years but I am still slightly in front with a 1-1 public record. I’m going to wrap things up here with a quick review of what happened and close the book on my Big Bash and ODI cricket betting.

Let’s get the bad news out of the way first. I totally mis-read the One Day Series with my prediction of a 4-1 series victory for Australia. It ended with a 4-1 series victory for England, so I wasn’t even close. In hindsight I think Australia might have gone in a bit complacent. I wasn’t expecting Josh Hazelwood to be rested for the first 2 games, which is where the damage was really done. The freakish Jason Roy innings of 180 off 151 in Game 1 was not only a massive form reversal for him (he was a dud for the Sydney Sixers) but it really gave England the early momentum and they didn’t give it back.

David Warner and Steve Smith, the stars of the Australian batting lineup, just did not fire all series with not a single half-century amongst them. Such poor performance is totally out of character for these two and you have to wonder if they might be fatigued, or distracted. No excuses though, I crashed and burnt on my 4-1 series bet at 3.50 and I’ll take my medicine.

The Big Bash has been a happier result, but wasn’t without a few nervous moments. I had backed the Melbourne Renegades to make the Finals and they DID. During the first phase of the tournament they became competition favourites with a 4-1 winning start during Phase 1, but as so often happens, the ODI team changes threw a spanner in the works and form lines totally changed. I was expecting Aaron Finch to get called up and he starred for Australia with 107, 106 and 62 before getting injured, but nobody predicted Cameron Whites return to the national side. When Brad Hodge also got injured the side suddenly struggled for batting depth. After losing 3 games straight since my last update I was kicking myself for not hedging, but they came good to win the last 2 games to finish with a 6-4 record and lock in 3rd place.

So that win in the Big Bash Futures covered me for the loss in the ODI series and I’m happy enough with that outcome. The Finals for the Big Bash start tonite and I’m a little bit gun shy about calling the winner because individual T20 games can be a bit of a coin toss. Perth are entitled to be strong favourites but the “Fairy-tale Factor” belongs to the other 3 teams who have yet to win the competition. There is a lot of uncertainty about player availability with injuries and national selection potentially pulling players away so it is tough to call, but I still quite like the Melbourne Renegades and will be cheering them even if I’m not invested.