Englands win in India may be a boost for sports gambling fans

It has to be said that cricket is not normally considered to be high on the agenda for Irish sports gambling fans, but perhaps the events in India last week may have revived the excitement of gambling on cricket outside the subcontinent. After their comprehensive defeat in the first test of this series, how many English cricket gambling fans would have predicted a ten wicket victory in the second test let alone sports gambling enthusiasts outside of England. Even more surprising was that England managed to achieve that victory on a pitch that had clearly been prepared in accordance with the home team’s wishes to take spin from day one, and they lost the toss which should have provided India with the opportunity to post a big score and then bowl England out twice on a deteriorating wicket. The batting of Alastair Cook and man of the match, Kevin Pieterson provided the platform for success, which was then backed up by the incredible spin bowling performance of Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann, both of whom managed to show the Indian spinners how to bowl on that sort of pitch. Their performance has presented India with a difficult problem, and cricket gambling buffs are now fascinated to see how the Indian authorities plan to prepare the pitch at Eden Gardens for the third test this week. Sports gambling fans should however be very wary of putting England up as favourites too soon in this series, because history is very much on the side of India. India have not lost a game at the Kolkata ground since 1999, and their first inning’s totals have exceeded 600 in all three of their most recent visits to the Eden Gardens ground. Nevertheless England have certainly done enough to show that they are capable of upsetting the odds, and there will be many cricket fans thinking of gambling on an England win in the third test and maybe even a series victory, something that has not happened very often for England on these pitches.