England vs Sri Lanka - The Best of the Bets Part III

As our picture (taken three days ago) shows, anything, or nothing, could happen at Galle over the next five days. Whilst a consensus has grown that it is a good thing for Test cricket to return to Galle just three years after the death and destruction wrought by the tsunami. In that spirit, players, the press and fans appear to agree that the under-prepared outer and facilities should be dealt with. Nevertheless, The Trumpet contends that a Test match requires a pitch to be of a functionally minimum standard. This is the final Test of a hard fought series, the outcome of which is still in doubt. If the pitch isn't ready, the series should be declared complete and the players should play some T20 cricket to entertain the fans and show their solidarity with people who lost a lot more than a Test Match. But a Test should not be played for the sake of it.

In the light of all that, the Trumpet is loathe to make any suggestions for gambles, but he updates on past recommendations over the jump.   

The Trumpet tipped a drawn series which was available at 4/1 (for 1-1) which, given that everyone wants to play and Galle's pitch looks like it will produce a result, is still looking quite good value. I tipped Ryan Sidebottom as England's top bowler at 9/2 - he has impressed, but all that hard work has produced just 4 wickets to date. Finally on the fixed odds, I tipped Michael Vandort at 15/2 for the top Lankan batsman: with 195 runs so far, he's given a decent run for your money, but he's still well off the pace set by the Lankan big guns, Sangakkara and Jayawardene.

On the spreads, Sportingindex offered England's series ton ups at 80 - 95, which the Trumpet saw as a useful buy. After England's extraordinary collective failure to turn any one of ten fifties into a ton, this market represents a loss most unlikely to be recovered at Galle. I blame the umpires (well, a bit).  The England tail's perceived weakness led me to suggest a big sell on that market available at 190 - 210. Helped by Jimmy Anderson's nightwatchman stint pushing the unexpectedly solid Matt Prior down to 8 in the First Test, England's 8 to 11 have garnered 150 runs so far, but might not get many more. A small win beckons! Finally, The Trumpet recommended a buy on Alastair Cook's total runs market quoted at 195 - 210. After a disastrous start, Cook has 147 runs to date - if he can get his head down and avoid another umpiring howler, the bet might just pay out.

Perhaps we should just hope for some decent Test match cricket and wish the long-suffering people of Galle a happy five days as they continue to re-build their lives.

[The Tooting Trumpet] [Image: Getty]