England v South Africa ODI series betting
England and South Africa lock horns once again this week, firstly in a Twenty20 match on Wednesday and then for the first ODI of the five-match series.
Kevin Pietersen takes charge of the One-Day side in his first series after his successful debut as Test captain. The Home side will need that sort of form to continue if they can reverse their recent fortunes in ODI matches.
Those of us that have followed England in recent sport betting will know that they were outplayed by New Zealand earlier this summer, but if Pietersen can inflict his aggressive style on the team, their fortunes may well change.
Owais Shah will come into the side after showing some impressive skills with the bat and looks a reasonable bet at 6/1 with Blue Square to be the top England batsman of the series.
South Africa’s captain, Graeme Smith, performed well during the Test series, regularly scoring runs to frustrate England – he is available at 5/2 with Extrabet to be South Africa’s top scorer.
The best odds on England to win the series are 13/8 with Bet365, Boylesports and Paddy Power. With a new talisman at the helm in run-scoring form, this looks like pretty good value.
The Olympics 2008: Team GB to be among the medals
There’s nothing quite like the Olympics to create a sense of national sporting pride in Britain. The country will unite behind little-known sportsmen and women as they are thrust into the limelight in Beijing.
We’ll be on the edges of our seat in front of the men’s Madison event at the Laoshan Velodrome, and jumping up and down with excitement watching the canoeing and by the closing ceremony, there will be some new national heroes.
As a proud sporting Brit, and as someone who bets on sport to make it even more exciting, I’m having a punt on a spread bet with Sporting Index. They have devised a points system for GB and Ireland medals (5 for gold, 3 for silver and 1 for bronze), and are offering a spread of 102-108.
I have bought at 108 with a small stake, which means that every point over 108 (so every medal won beyond a certain number) will earn me some money - that means I’ll be addicted to every minute of the action hoping for our team to be amongst the medals. The risk isn’t too high - every point below 102 at the end of the fortnight would cost me money, but with plenty of medal prospects it’s a reasonable bet.
Of particular interest are the cycling events, the tennis and the diving, but Team GB has a number of strong contenders.
Philips Idowu (pictured above) is the number one in the world in the triple jump, and is one of our bankers for a Gold medal. Other athletics hopes are Kelly Sotherton in the heptathlon and Paula Radcliffe in the marathon, still chasing that Olympic title.
The velodrome will offer much hope for the medals table, with Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins, Victoria Pendleton and Mark Cavendish all in with a chance.
Andy Murray looks in good shape on the tennis court, and is competing in the singels and the doubles (with his brother, Jamie) so he has another chance of a place on the podium.
We also have Ben Ainslie and the ‘Yngling girls’ in the sailing, Larry Godfrey in archery, Liam Tancock in swimming, Beth Tweddle in the gymnastics, Richard Faulds in shooting, Frankie Gavin in boxing, old favourites Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms in the badminton, and the usually strong rowing teams - all stand a reasonable chance of a medal.
There has been much hype surrounding young Tom Daley in the diving, and although he has said it is too soon for a medal, he could be in with a shout in the synchronised event.
So here’s to the judo, the handball and the table tennis - all will be gripping in the Olympic arena, and I shall be watching the lot.
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