09 October 2018, by: BET Editor

CRICKET BETTING STRATEGIES

Cricket is one of the most popular sports for betting in the world, with different formats both international and domestic and hundreds of opportunities to bet on the action. But how should you plan landing your winning bets? We have some tips to improve your cricket betting strategy.

It’s imperative to understand the differences between Test Cricket, One Day International (ODI) Cricket and T20 cricket.

Test Cricket – The oldest format of the game is played over five days and comprises of two innings per team. It’s a gruelling examination of skill, tactics and endurance between the sides with different strategies at play.

ODI Cricket – The limited overs game gives teams 50 overs each to score as many runs as possible. The game takes place on one day and sees teams trying to score as quickly as possible while lasting out their allotted overs.

T20 Cricket – The newest format is taking the world by storm. With only 20 overs per team the action is condensed into a frenzy of big hits and vital wickets. Caution is often thrown to the wind as teams look to innovate and score big runs.

Home advantage and knowledge of the conditions is another important aspect to consider before betting on cricket. The venues can widely be divided into the sub-continent and South Africa, Australia and England.

Sub-continent – The home grounds of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh often dish up dry and flat conditions suitable for slow and spin bowling. Fast bowlers battle to extract pace and bounce out of the wickets and runs often flow in these conditions. Players from the sub-continent are more adept at facing spin bowling in these conditions and this often sees teams from outside the sub-continent battle to adapt. This is not true for all individual venues on the sub-continent as some pitches produce higher scoring matches than other and that’s why it pays to drill down to the host venue of any match to inform your betting decisions.

South Africa, Australia and England – these countries are known for harder and faster pitches (particularly in South Africa and Australia) which encourages fast and swing bowling. On fast and true pitches with fast outfields this can lead to a lot of runs being scored with the ball flying off the bat while fast swing and seam bowlers can prosper when the ball swings, seams off the pitch or rushes batsmen. Players from the sub-continent often struggle to adapt to the pace and bounce of these wickets while spin bowlers don’t always find the purchase to turn the ball. Again it’s important to check historical results at the venue and consider the home ground advantage.

ICC Rankings – The International Cricket Council provides rankings for players and teams across all formats of the game. There’s a wealth of information to be gleaned by weighing up a teams strength before betting on a result and the ranking of players before deciding on a top batsman or bowler bet.

Statistics – Again there are numerous sites that offer in-depth statistics for teams,players and venues across all formats. We recommend Cricinfo as one of the most in-depth, but a quick Google search will unveil a wealth of resources. You can dig down to almost any level, but starting with batting and bowling averages, average scores at a venue and historical results between teams is a good place to start.

Team News – Numerous outlets provide extensive coverage of player availability and selections. Cricinfo is, once again, the market leader here but you can build up a useful list of news outlets and social media follows and searches to inform you of who is playing in a match, series or tour. Having key players missing can disrupt team dynamics and affect outcomes in all formats.

The coin toss is one of the most influential aspects on a match result. Teams and captains plan their strategy depending on what they think will happen depending on their strengths and weaknesses and the state of the weather and pitch conditions. If the team who wins the toss elects to bat they generally expect to be able to score runs with conditions deteriorating. If they opt to bowl, generally they expect wickets to be up for grabs and runs to be tough to come by. Keep these decisions in mind as you cast your bets.

That brings to an end the first in a series of cricket betting strategy articles. Open an account with BET.co.za today and we’ll double your first deposit up to R500. Get started betting on cricket with us today!

BET Contributor