THE EDGE: After a thrilling 1st Test our cricket tipster The Edge previews the 2nd Test at Lord’s with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
MATCH OVERVIEW:
After a breath taking 1st Test at Edgbaston, England and Australia move to Lord’s for the 2nd Test on Wednesday. We had so many twists and turns in the 1st Test on BETDAQ Betting Exchange, hopefully we have similar drama over the whole series! With the way these two sides play, I don’t doubt we’re for an incredible summer. Obviously there was a lot of talking points from the 1st Test, and the debate will rumble on as to whether the decision to declare in the first innings from England was the right one. I’m on the fence with that gien Root was still there, and I would suggest it was Bairstow dropping/missing some key chances that really hurt England.
As expected there’s been a big reaction to Bazball in the English media. It was always going to be judged by the result rather than the actions – that’s just the way sport is these days. If England took a wicket in those four overs after they declared, Stokes would have made the best call ever. Alas they didn’t and lost the Test so it’s a focus point. The reality of Bazball in my opinion in terms of the Ashes is that what it does is just put time in the game. It effectively rules out the draw and at the same time allows Australia to bat at whatever pace they want. The stats from the 1st Test are very interesting – England scored 666 runs off 866 balls while Australia scored 668 runs off 1,252 balls. People are saying “without Bazball, it would have been a draw” that opinion is fine, but England aren’t going to get away with taking bigger than usual risks against this Australian side.
Australia seem happy to go at their own pace, and basically just let England make a mistake. It will be very interesting to see how the England batters perform if Australia bat first and put 400 on the board over one and a half days. Do they bat very quickly to “catch up” and possibly risk collapsing? After seeing the 1st Test, I don’t think Australia will be too bothered by the English tactics – as I said if Australia just do their own thing, England just effectively take the draw out of the question and then it’s a straight shootout between the two best sides in the world at the moment.
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
The long range forecast for London looks like the weather could be very similar to Edgbaston. With hot weather conditions there’s always a chance of a thunderstorm, and as always with Lord’s it’s nearly more important to look up rather than down. You want to bat under blue skies and bowl under grey skies at Lord’s! Depending on the weather closer to the game, it might be a huge toss. I’m not going to read much into the Irish Test here because there was such a gulf in class between the sides. In general Lord’s has turned into a result venue – there’s only been two draws here since 2017. There’s been eleven Tests in that time, with a break for Covid19. The last Ashes home series was actually a draw here – Ben Stokes scored 115 not out to save England from a tricky situation in the third innings.
RECOMMENDED BET:
As I said above, England’s tactics effectively rule out the draw, or at least make it very difficult for the draw to finish a draw. It might offer a nice trade at certain points, but as an outright bet at 5.3 I have no interesting. Then is becomes a straight shootout between the sides – at the time of writing England are 2.62 and Australia are 2.26. I have to say after seeing the 1st Test I really like Australia at 2.26 – their best batters didn’t even fire in the 1st Test either. I feel they can soak up all the England pressure and just do their own thing. England will take some risks, and Australia will take advantage. They are a confident bet.
The Edge Says:
Four points win Australia to beat England at 2.26 with Betdaq Exchange
View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/EngAus2
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
It was very interesting to see the new ball do nothing at Edgbaston – that was a nice trading opportunity before it started moving after 10 to 15 overs. I feel at Lord’s it’s best to keep things pretty simple – you want to get on the batting side while it’s sunny and get on the bowling side while it’s cloudy. The Test is going to bounce around between two very good sides, so don’t get married to a position here. England batting will move the game on quickly, so it’s probably best to take on the draw during that time and I would be open to a draw trade while Australia are batting.
