England v Pakistan 2nd Test Preview
Spread punters going against England in the first Test were right to fear the ferocious new ball pairing of Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif. Early buyers of Aamer's performance spread were especially happy to see the young paceman take the key scalps of England's first three batsmen Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott and Sporting Index's cricket traders will expect plenty much more attention on Aamer ahead of the second Test at Edgbaston.
Buyers of England's win index should expect a result either way at the home of Warwickshire CCC, as only two of the last ten Tests at the ground have been drawn. However, spread sellers should be aware that the match finished all square the last time England hosted Pakistan here, in 1992. On that occasion, the match didn't even see a second innings after two opening days of rain. Buyers of England's first innings runs or the supremacy spread will be interested to know however that the runs came freely afterwards with Pakistan declaring on 446 and England calling it a day on 459. Alec Stewart was given out ten runs short of a double century.
First innings totals for England have varied in their most recent Tests on the Edgbaston track and sellers of the runs spread will hope for a repeat of the 231 2008 first innings total against South Africa. In the last six years, the Three Lions have also posted opening innings totals of 376, 295, 407 and, their best of the last five Edgbaston Tests, 566 against the West Indies.
The 407 came in what many spread punters may remember as the most exciting match in the West Midlands venue ever, and certainly among the most exciting Ashes contests. England eventually won by a nail-biting two runs, thanks to heroics of Steve Harmison and to the delight of buyers of England's win index spread for that match. Strauss and Kevin Pietersen both featured during those five days, and buyers of each player's runs spreads for this match will hope to see the pair play as they did in the first innings then with totals of 48 and 71 respectively, rather than their second innings performances which added 6 and 20 runs.
Although they are the underdogs there is likely to be plenty of spread bettors hoping to profit from buying Pakistan's win index. Confidence is high in the side after new captain Salman Butt triumphed over Australia recently in his first Test in charge but buyers of the spread might also be hoping for a little luck with the coin toss and that Butt opts to bat first. Going back to the start of 2009, of the 13 Tests that Pakistan have played they batted second in nine, losing six times. Only in the most recent, in said match against the Aussies at Leeds, did they win. Of the four in which Pakistan batted first, the record reads a much healthier W1-D2-L1.
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