On these shores, the middle of July is a barren time on the sporting calendar.
We’re in the dog days of the MLB season, NFL training camp is only just getting started, and we are in the middle of the NBA and NHL offseasons.
Most sports fans take these days to decompress and get ready for the beginning of football season, but it’s also a great time to discover new sports.
And there’s no better time than this week to see why billions (yes, billions) of people around the world are obsessed with cricket.
India and England, the two most powerful countries in cricket, are in the middle of a five-match test series, with the English up 2-1 ahead of this week’s contest at Old Trafford Cricket Ground (which is a nearby, but different venue from Old Trafford soccer stadium, where Manchester United plays).
If England wins the Old Trafford Test, which begins in the early hours of Wednesday morning, it will win the series.
If India comes out on top, it will all come down to the fifth test at The Oval, which begins on July 31.
It’s hard to understate just how important this match will be to the global sporting audience, even if it doesn’t break into the mainstream here in the United States.
It is estimated that over 89 million people in India streamed the first match of this series, which gives you an idea of just how massive the audience is for a sport that is still foreign to most American sports fans.
There’s not enough room in this column (or paper) to explain the rules and history of cricket (and more specifically, test cricket), but this match between England and India offers a perfect entry point for anybody curious about the sport.
The odds are tight, the stakes are incredibly high, and tensions will be even higher, as these two teams just came off a dramatic match at Lord’s that saw England survive by 22 runs on Day 5, which is the cricketing equivalent of an NFL team making a goal-line stand inside the final 2 minutes to hold on for a win, and disappointing over a billion fans in the process.
For those who are cricket-curious, one way to dip your toe in the pool is through betting. As long as it’s done responsibly, gambling can be a vehicle for discovery.
If you throw 10 bucks on India to win this match, you will naturally be more inclined to tune in, which is the best way to learn about the sport.
What’s great about this particular match is that the odds are palatable in either direction.
England is a -200 favorite on the two-way moneyline, and India is coming back as a +150 underdog. There’s nothing complicated about that.
In my opinion, the price on India looks more than palatable considering how competitive they’ve been on the road in this series.
A running mistake cost them the win in the last match, and they were undone by a historic run-chase by England in the curtain raiser.
The Men in Blue could easily be up 3-0 in this series.
And for those looking for a more exciting payout, you could back Yashasvi Jaiswal to record 100 runs in the first inning at +600 (bet365 Sportsbook).
Jaiswal is on his way to becoming one of the all-time greats for India, and he’s coming off a poor performance at Lord’s, which is giving us a good opportunity to buy back in on the 23-year-old at Old Trafford.
Michael Leboff is a long-suffering Islanders fan, but a long-profiting sports bettor with 10 years of experience in the gambling industry. He loves using game theory to help punters win bracket pools, find long shots, and learn how to beat the market in mainstream and niche sports.