Just how well will England fare in the 2011 Cricket World Cup? Not well enough to win it probably, even though they have previously been mentioned in the same breath as India and Sri Lanka as potential winners. England’s odds on winning the little gold trophy have drifted way out following their hammering at the hands of Australia 6-1 following the success of the Ashes. Yes, they have bit hit by injury, and while they are expected to have Stuart Broad and Tim Bresnan back, it won’t be enough. Their key player in the short format of the game, and the man who has carried them so well over the last twelve months or so with the bat, Eoin Morgan is missing, and that will hurt them badly. You will likely make more profit in betting against England than by backing them. Just saying. While the 2011 Cricket World Cup looks as if it will be a pretty open affair, England look to just have too many cracks in their line up. Sure, Pakistan are too unpredictable and volatile to back heavily. Sure India and South Africa have choker labels on them, so should that put England in the hunt? No. Their struggles against lowly Canada, where Kevin Pietersen was surprisingly deployed as opening batsman, will not have instilled much confidence, winning by just 16 runs. England have one more warm up match to come against Pakistan.
England will do well enough to be in the quarter finals for the knockout stage. They are in the tougher Group B of the draw, and have to negotiate matches against South Africa and India (who are potential tournament winners). A good run of three wins would push any team through to the knockout stage, so that leaves victories against the Netherlands and Ireland as being essential, and there is a very tricky match against the rapidly improving Bangladesh. There’s not a lot of certainty around England here, and they looked a bit tired and beaten up in the one day series against Australia. England do not have a solid opening partner for Andrew Strauss, they are missing Morgan, and Kevin Pietersen cannot be relied upon so much as he has been throughout his career to fire England to victory. Graeme Swann should be able to make a big impact with his spin bowling, and will be happy to get into conditions which will suit him after the dry flat tracks Down Under. There probably isn’t enough in the bowling attack to really damage the top level opponents in this tournament, and the batsmen are not the best players of spin. Tim Bresnan is being eased back into things but will miss the opening matches, Broad has just returned from injury (although he is suffering from an illness at the moment), Ajmal Shahzad is nursing a hamstring injury, England are short on fully fit bowlers at the moment. There is not the explosive batting which you can rely on from England, and once they get bogged down against spin, it is hard to see them running up large unassailable totals really.
So, are we looking at an early exit for a somewhat beleaguered England? You can take the price of for them not to qualify, and when you break it down, there is the possibility of it happening. Of course, they won the 2010 Twenty20 World Cup as complete dark horses, but you look at the 50 over format and see so much potential elsewhere.
Let’s picture England squeezing through as one of the top four teams in the Group (and they could be pressed hard by Bangladesh), then a quarter final exit for England will fetch 15/13 at Bwin. If you don’t think that they will even get that far, there is a lot of value in taking England for an early exit from the group stage for a price of 13/2 at SkyBet.
The top England batsman market may as well fall on Kevin Pietersen, now he is getting a run out as opener. Who knows with him, as he still have the most talent and the most to offer in the batting line up. Decent return on Pieterson for 4/1 at Unibet. This would have been the ideal category to back Eoin Morgan, but England have been robbed of him. Other potential big scorers really are only Matt Prior (12/1 at Unibet) on his day, Andrew Strauss (4/1 at Totesport) and the more plausible figure of Jonathan Trott (7/2 at Totesport). Trott scores heavily, but scores slowly and that is why he isn’t a natural one day player. But he has great temperament, sticks around and will get valuable runs on the board.
The top wicket taker for England will likely be pushed by James Anderson (7/2 at Bet365) and Graeme Swann (5/2 at Boylesports). Swann will get a lot more action with the conditions favoring him, and Anderson is the go to guy, Mr. Reliable when it comes to swing. Bresnan really would have been a top contender here, as he is so dangerous at the top of the innings and at the end. Not sure what level of participation he is going to be able to offer, so stick with the two main men.
Head to Victor Chandler for your Cricket World Cup betting for outright winner. If England win the tournament, then all losing bets placed on the outright winner market will be refunded. This is well worth doing your cricket betting at Victor Chandler, because you just never know, and it provides some kind of coverage. With great prices available right now on favourites Sri Lanka and potential outsiders of South Africa and even the unpredictable Pakistan, it’ll be worth picking up your odds now at Victor Chandler. Victor Chandler offer a free £25 bet for new customers opening an account with them.
