THE EDGE: The Edge previews the 1st Test between ENGLAND v WEST INDIES with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
England v West Indies 1st Test
MATCH OVERVIEW:
The Test summer in England on Betdaq Betting Exchange gets underway at Lord’s on Wednesday as England host West Indies. This Test is going to be focused on the retirement of Jimmy Anderson. Leading England’s attack for so many years, so much success and one of their greatest cricketers; he deserves a good send off. Obviously there has been plenty of debate around his retirement – essentially he is being “moved on” by England management because they feel the time is right to move on. He has been taking plenty of wickets in the County Championship in the build-up to this Test, and he could easily still do a great job for England.
The reality is however, England have to move on at some point and this summer is the perfect time. A home summer with West Indies and Sri Lanka visiting is basically the easiest fixture list possible for England. It’s a good time for England to try and build a new attack as Anderson follows Stuart Broad into the sunset. Another talking point is England moving on from Ollie Roberston – he has had a terrible time of things recently, headlined by breaking the County Championship record of conceding 43 runs in one over. While on paper this should be an easy win for England, it is an interesting series because of all the changes.
We might see Anderson do some damage here, but how the attack goes without him later in the summer will be very interesting. As always with England, seemingly all roads lead to the next Ashes series at all times in Test cricket. West Indies have had some issues getting to England with flights cancelled because of Hurricane Beryl – played missed the tour game but they should be ready to go for the first Test of the summer!
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
As the saying goes at Lord’s; you should look up not down! Generally overhead conditions play a huge part here – if the sun is out you want to bat and if it’s cloudy you want to bowl. Generally we have a good wicket for batting on but under the clouds the ball will move around a lot. The long range forecast for London is pretty good – as things stand we couldn’t lose much time at all. A shower here or there can be made up with extra time at the end of the day too but for the most part it looks sunny. There will be cloudy times over Thursday and Friday; that’s when you want to bowl.
RECOMMENDED BET:
England are trading as the red-hot favourites at 1.27 coming into this Test, and to be honest I expected them to be a little shorter if truth be told. England are going through a lot of changes at the moment, but this West Indies side is very limited. I feel with the forecast the draw doesn’t really come into things; that’s trading 6.2 and looks on the short side given the way these two bat. The forecast would suggest it’ll be good to bat here, but you’d expect England to dominate and I’m happy with a position at 1.27 for the long-term.
The Edge Says:
Two points win England to beat West Indies at 1.27 on Betdaq Exchange
View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/EngWes
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
Although I’m confident on an England win over the long-term, the key with Test cricket is to not get married to a position early from a trading point of view. Five days is a long time and the market is going to ebb and flow – it’s been quite a while since we’ve had some Test cricket and it’s easy to stay in T20 trading mode after we’ve just had the IPL and World Cup. The best play at Lord’s will be supporting the bowling side when it’s cloudy, and then you can get on the batting side when the sun comes out and the new ball has been saw off too. It might be obvious at Lord’s, but it works!
