West Indies and England meet in a three-match one-day series on Friday lunchtime, it is not expected to be the most rip-roaring of contests. Indeed, it should be an absolute stroll for England at North Sound given the paucity of talent on display.
It’s not a West Indies second string. It’s a third string. Consider who is missing (deep breath): Chris Gayle, Dwayne Smith, Darren Bravo, Lendl Simmons, Marlon Samuels, Dwayne Bravo, Andre Fletcher, Andre Russell, Kieron Pollard, Darren Sammy, Denesh Ramdin, Sunil Narine, Samuel Badree. I’m sure I’ve missed someone out.
As a result, England are 1.29 (William Hill, Coral) to win the series with West Indies frankly not in the same postcode as value at 5 (Stan James).
But there is still a good bet to be had which will hold your interest for the three games. It comes from the top England series runscorer market. Whisper it, but the layers have made a mistake.
We are taking a bit of a flyer on it but aren’t we always when hunting for value? We think we’ve found an edge, not a guaranteed winner. And we’ll take those all day long.
Jonny Bairstow, the Yorkshire ginger nugget, is our man. He is priced up at 11 with Ladbrokes to finish top of England charts. The folks at Ladbrokes have not been keeping close enough eye on how England have set themselves up in the warm-up matches.
It looks likely from the two games against representative XIs that Bairstow might, just might, have displaced Sam Billings as Jason Roy’s opening partner.
Let’s look at what happened. Against the UWI Vice Chancellor’s XI if you please, England went with Billings and Roy as openers. Normal service. Roy was at his brilliant best but Billings failed, scoring only 14.
For game two, Roy was given a rest and Bairstow got a game. Were Billings and Bairstow going up against each other in a straight fight for a spot? Against the WICB President’s XI Billings failed again, notching just two. But Bairstow was fluent making 86.
Consider that Billings is only in the XI as a replacement for Alex Hales, who could be available from game two, and it is hard to argue he is assured of a place. He didn’t exactly nail a place in his one outing against India at the start of the year, making 35. And he also came up short in the T20s.
Bairstow, however, managed a fifty in his one outing. So he is surely in pole position to start the series as an opener.
We know Ladbrokes have made a rick by looking at other prices. Bet365 and other green listed bookmakers are on to it, going 6.5 and 6 respectively. That’s the right price. So if you can get the 11 with Ladbrokes do so as quickly as possible.
Remember, we are saying that Bairstow’s price is wrong by five clicks. And we only bet when a price is wrong. He has his work cut out to beat jolly Joe Root at 3.5 with Bet365 or the explosive Roy at the same price with Bet365, Skybet, William Hill and Ladbrokes but we’d be mad to miss out.
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