New Zealand vs England Series

[thetitan]

Two incredibly similar sides, consistently average in the shorter format and the NZ conditions will be similar to those in England

Hard to pick them apart on paper (bookies make both sides 5/6 for the first game), but the key for the twenty20 games is that Vettori is likely to miss both matches (tuesday and thursday, 6am on SS1).

He's one of the best bowlers in the world for 20/20 and he will obviously be a huge loss as captain as well. NZ's bowling looks really really thin without him, although I rate Jeetan Patel highly. Shane Bond's contract has been terminated although I'm not sure how much of a loss he'll be, given that he's not played too many matches for NZ. Also, when NZ performed well in the 20/20 world cup, mcmillan was the main thrust in their batting, and he won't be playing either.

I am reasonably confident in an England win in the ODI series and I think that evens is great value and should be snapped up ASAP, starts in about a week and will probably be considerably shorter by then.

For the 20/20 games, it really is a toss-up. I would make it something like 1.95/2.06 with England marginal favourites...but NZ have some destructive players in McCullum, Ross Taylor and big Jacob Oram.

I would expect we will see lowish scores for the two twenty20 games, would be surprised if either game has a 160+ score.
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Corner vulture

Jimmy Bullard for England Captain. Seriously.

[thetitan]

NZ win toss and bowl first, england 36/2, reached as low as 1.5 after a good first couple of overs
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Corner vulture

Jimmy Bullard for England Captain. Seriously.

[thetitan]

england win by 32 runs, a bit of a blow-out there for me, traded first innings with small money and did OK, wanted to stay with NZ with the 2nd innings but never got close.

Oram played a blinder yet again in this format, absolutely wasted at number 7, should be at 4 at the lowest.
_________________
Corner vulture

Jimmy Bullard for England Captain. Seriously.

[fairfranco]

I forgot to place my 1.45 lays before going to bed!

by the time I woke up the game was cruising towards an England win.

Glad I missed it as without seeing the odds I'm pretty sure New Zealand never hit 1.45!

comfortable win with only Oram scoring any runs really. only 3 players hit double figures, the opener Ryder with 22, Mills with 11 and Oram with 61.

Without Orams figure they woud have not made 100!

He is wasted at 7 but then again if they're going to move through the order at such a rate then it doesn't make much difference as he still got 10 overs to bat!

[thetitan]

match starts tonight at 12:30am, might try and work on this for the first hour.

at the moment the price is in 'no bet' territory. The downside to backing at 1.5 is huge with England and they should hopefully trade closer to 1.8-1.9, which will be my entry point.

England are better than NZ, but not better enough to absolutely steam-roller them over 50 overs...they could smash it around in 20/20 but mustard etc will struggle to do the same tonight. Expecting this to be a slow and steady win for England, mainly relying on NZ's deficiencies rather than blasting them off the field.

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antepost series tip here is kyle mills @ 3/1 to be top series wicket-taker for NZ. He's the only bowler who isn't crocked and also guaranteed a starting spot in every match.

Can't see value elsewhere except for maybe Sidebottom as top England wicket-taker but price isnt big enough for me. I reckon I have a couple of good buys on the series spreads, but I'm not sure we're allowed to give advice about that here.
_________________
Corner vulture

Jimmy Bullard for England Captain. Seriously.

[murrayfield]

Im going to Lay whoever bats first.... that's always value and should work in the long run. England are slightly better at doing it though but they do also have the mighty collapse! A Cautious approach is needed, maybe back england 130/ 4 after 30 overs

[thetitan]

good luck murrayfield

Just said on SS1 that the NZ game will have a prompt start, hoping for an England win for the series bet, in previous years I'd definitely write the rest of this series off, assuming England would get thrashed 5-0 or maybe get a token win in the dead rubber...but they came back from 1-0 down in Sri Lanka to win that series, so I'd be impressed to see them bounce back.

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NZ win toss and bowl, strange decision considering they'll be chasing under lights. Vettori says it will swing first up with the dodgy weather, but usually when there's dodgy weather around, it will be considerably worse if you're batting under lights...esp with England having a good swing bowling attack.

Absolutely bizarre decision to me, potential to come and bite him in the arse although no doubt I'll be proven wrong!

Small punt on England here at evens, I think they're decent value to defend a score under lights.
_________________
Corner vulture

Jimmy Bullard for England Captain. Seriously.

[surfsup]

How bad are england? completely outclassed in both matches. Their batsman lack skill and aggression. NZ just in a completely different class.
I'll be on them the next 3 matches more than likely.

[thetitan]

england trounced by 10 wickets, NZ went at a run rate of 9 an over!

Struggling to understand how England could destroy NZ in the 20/20's then get trounced in the ODI's

Jesse Ryder looks a helluva good player, some of his hook shots were awesome.

So far, we've had 2 20/20's and 2 ODI's...all of them have been totally one-sided
_________________
Corner vulture

Jimmy Bullard for England Captain. Seriously.

[murrayfield]

We could do with Trescothick back in the squad he's our Ryder, little chance of that though. It'll be interesting to see how much NZ set England if they bat first next game..

Still going with the same theory. Lay the team that bats first!

[surfsup]

5 units on NZ to beat England game 3 big bet for me.

[Dioufy]

Fully expect England to bounce back here, so my first bet of this series will be big on an England win at 5/6 as so many batsmen/bowlers are due good innings/performances.