ICC Champions Trophy - Saturday betting

Two more games in the ICC Champions Trophy are here and after England blew Sri Lanka out of the water, Group A is looking for interesting - especially if you are a South African supporter!

Australia vs West Indies
In the first game of the day Australia and the West Indies clash at 9:30.

With all due respect to the West Indies (which isn't very much) I don't see how Australia could lose this game and the bookies don't either. I don't even think they have the firepower for an upset.

I've gone with:

• Ricky Ponting as the top Aussie batsman
• Devon Smith as the top West Indian batsman

India vs. Pakistan
Boy oh boy does this game have the potential to be a cracker...

The two old rivals are at it again and there is a lot riding on this fixture in terms of who goes through to the knockout rounds. There is nothing to choose between the two sides and I anticipate a tight game.

Bets I've placed:

• Rahul Dravid - top Indian batsman
• Shahid Afridi and Mohamad Youssuf - top Pakistan batsman

Helluva interesting tournament so far although I have to say I've been surprised by some very stilted batting performances.

IPL observation

I have an observation on this years IPL... T20 isn't a young mans game and experience has counted for a helluva lot this year.




Have a look at the top batters after 6 games - age in brackets:

• Matthew Hayden (37)
• Suresh Raida (23)
• Adam Gilchrist (37)
• Sachin Tendulkar (36)
• Herschelle Gibbs (35)

Obviously runs are pretty closely contested in this format of the game but I think its interesting that apart from Raida, the top batters are 35 and older - so much for smash and bash one day cricket.

Rahul Dravid (36) is also in the mix just below the top 5.

The bowlers were a very mixed bag with Yusuf Abdullah topping the ranks followed by "Slinger" Malinga.... Indian legspin master Anil Kumble was there or there abouts but no clear trend seemed to come through on the bowling front.

In terms of the batters though - I wonder if it is a case that they're not batting with a weight of expectation on their shoulders and are just going out to have a bit of fun or maybe administrators and fans get so wrapped up in "the next big thing" that we forget how much value and experience thes guys bring to the party?