Cricket Betting – Springboks A Champion Bet On Home Soil

One would imagine the last thing England‘s one-day side would need after a sound thrashing by the Aussies in the NatWest series would be to have to fly halfway around the world to face further humiliation in the Champions Trophy. Without Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen, England are proving easy pickings for the top limited overs sides and the prospect of facing up to, initially, Sri Lanka, South Africa and New Zealand in the next two weeks must have been giving Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower even more nightmares than their current plight against Ricky Ponting and his men. Let’s be honest, England are currently a mess outside of the Test arena, and it could be argued that the Ashes may have been decided very differently had Brett Lee been fit! Strauss can be excused most of the criticism coming England‘s way as he has mostly scored runs at the top of the order, but around him the failures are mounting up. Not only do England not score enough runs but their bowling attack has looked pretty toothless without Flintoff. Jimmy Anderson may have benefited from a rest during the NatWest series but Stuart Broad is struggling with a knee injury and neither Ryan Sidebottom nor Tim Bresnan take enough wickets to be considered match-winners. Boylesports go 16-1 that England will win the Champions Trophy but, on current form, they should be twice those odds. I couldn’t recommend old foes Australia (available at 5-1) either. Sure, they bat well down the order but the Aussies lack real swashbucklers among their front five and, as in the Twenty20 Cup, I feel they’ll get exposed by one of the classier one-day sides sooner rather than later. Hosts South Africa, 11-4 pretty much across the board, would have to be considered favourites as they will enjoy massive support and Graham Smith, AB De Villiers, Herschelle Gibbs and Jacques Kallis all have the potential to be the tournament’s leading run-maker. For that honour, however, how about a tentative wager on Sri Lanka‘s Tillakaratne Dilshan. The reason being Sri Lanka, 6-1 with William Hill and extrabet, look a pretty good bet to reach at least the last four and, if they do, the inventive Dilshan, 20-1 with Coral, will almost certainly have been among the runs. South Africa, however, will take some stopping and look the tournament’s most likely winners.