The big cricket event in Australasia is, of course, the ongoing Ashes series. It has hype, it has sold-out stadiums, it has players headbutting each other and, most importantly, two bog-average teams who will surely make it a close run thing.
So New Zealand’s two-Test series against West Indies is not going to get much attention, even if it’s just a short hop across the water to the Land of the Long Black Cloud from Aussie. It is such a backwater that Ben Stokes, England’s most-wanted all-rounder who awaits a police charge for a fight outside a nightclub, has gone there to keep his head down.
Our heads are down, too, though, studying the form-book and past scorecards to decipher the value from the Kiwi-Windies contest. It might not be glamorous, but we have often found in the past that if the layers are not salivating they can make a rick or two which we can benefit from.
The beauty of the series – which starts on Thursday, two days before the next Ashes contest – is that West Indies’ summer tour to England provides a terrific guide to what could happen. This is because conditions in New Zealand are very similar to England – chiefly that seam and swing bowlers do well, batsmen with techniques hewn outside of England and New Zealand, do not.
West Indies, incredibly, rather bucked that trend in England. They produced a stunning upset to win the Test match in Leeds, although they were hammered in the other two matches. Given that this was only their third win against a fellow top-ranked side in two years and 15 attempts it is wise to reckon the Kiwis will win this series two-zip. That bet is available at -137 with green-listed bookmakers.
If that wager is our staple, we look to land bigger numbers on the top West Indies runscorer market. Shai Hope was a sensation in England and he should be the outright favourite on this market. Instead he shares top billing with Kraigg Brathwaite, who he outscored by 92 runs in England.
Hope hit two centuries against the English, averaging 75 and it is fair to say that the +250 that Bet365 offer is value.
With the ball, Kemar Roach is the jolly for top wicket-taker. At first glance, this appears to be correct because Roach took 11 wickets in England, three more than Shannon Gabriel who came second to him on the averages. Bet365 go +200.
But Gabriel is the bet here because he played one fewer match and his strike rate was only inferior to Roach by 1.2 clicks. Gabriel is twice the price at +400 with the same firm and that gap is not at all justified.
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