It was another close game but it was disappointing for me in a couple of ways. There were some outstanding performances, none better than the Lion-Hearted Ben Stokes chasing runs on the final day with an incredible high score for the game of 155. No matter what country you’re from, if you are a lover of cricket that final clutch innings was great to watch. There was some big controversies too which had the normally civilized Lords Crowd boo-ing and even the members Long Room blew up at one point as the "Spirit of Cricket" came into question. On the betting front it was a bit of a disaster for me because the injury to Nathan Lyon on Day 2 caused me to throw my pre-game betting plan in the bin and I kind of made a mess of things after that.
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I did get a lot of calls right though. I was aiming for a 100 run Australian lead after the 1st Innings and they ended up with a lead of 91. There was also a lot of Top Edge Dismissals due to the way the pitch flattened out. Both teams Bowlers relied heavily on the short ball with defensive boundary fielders and both teams Batsmen tried to go after the big shots anyway – with some mixed fortunes.
After the Lyon injury I had pivoted away from backing Australia to Win and went for Australian 3rd Innings Runs instead – which was a painful mistake and a big disappointment. I was expecting a steady building innings turning into a big 400+ run lead but the Australian bats were a bit ordinary and undisciplined on the Flattish Day 4 Pitch. I’d backed both Warner and Khawaja To Score Centuries in that 3rd dig at 10.00 and 11.00 respectively which I thought were cracking prices. Warner failed again and Khawaja gave his wicket away on 77. Ouch. That one really stings.
Australia fell short of where I think they should have got in that 3rd Innings so with their spinner Lyon out I did see a potentially heroic chase by England as a distinct possibility. I’d jumped on England to Win at 7.20 on the morning of Day 5 and they DID make a really good fist of it. At one point during the chase the WinViz Predictor had England slight favorites to win the game…..but they fell short by 43 and surrendered fairly meekly once Ben Stokes was out. Thus it was a total wipe out for me on the betting front. That really hurts due to the calls I did get right and I still feel like I am seeing things well. Next game is in just 3 days though so no time to sulk about it...