T20 - England in the Super 8s!
Two days of rain in Guyana could have ended England's Twenty20 World Cup interest before the action really got going, but after first coming to the West Indies' aid against the Three Lions, Paul Collingwood's men had their own luck over the Irish with a washout handing them victory. Spread buyers of England's outright index (winner = 60 points; runner-up = 40 points; lose semi-final = 20 points; lose in the Super Eight = 10 points; group stage = 0 points) breathed a huge sigh of relief as the team advanced to the second stage thanks only to a superior run rate.
Sporting Index punters who wanted to wait until now before taking a spread betting position on Collingwood and co will be weighing up which team will turn up for the Super Eight phase matches based on those opening two results. Spread buyers of their outright index will be buoyed by the daunting score of 191/5 that England posed the Windies before the weather intervention meant that a revised Duckworth-Lewis chase of 60 from six overs was accomplished with a ball to spare and the loss of only two wickets. Spread punters still thinking about buying England's team tournament runs will take confidence from a batting display that was widely regarded as one of their finest in the short format of the game.
By contrast, spread sellers of the side's outright index and team tournament runs spread will point to the fact that the next day, an identical line-up struggled and only managed to set a score of 120/8 from 20 overs against William Porterfield's Irish side on the same pitch.
Those first two games saw Eoin Morgan hit a combined total of 100 runs and any pre-tournament buyers of his batsman tournament runs will be hoping that he can continue the big hitting and outscore his teammates.
Kevin Pietersen was another that caused much deliberation among Sporting Index's T20 traders before the tournament. Spread buyers and sellers were split between those expecting him to be firing on all cylinders, like when he burst onto the scene in the mid-Noughties, and others who felt that recent problems with form and injury would hold him back. His innings against West Indies saw a steady start to the tournament with a knock of 24 from 20 balls, but 24 hours later sellers of his batsman tournament runs would have been pleased to see him reach just nine from 18 balls.
With England's opening two matches both significantly shortened, they have bowled far fewer overs than any of the other nations remaining in the World Cup. Whether spread buyers believe that this presents an advantage in the individual games will depend on if they anticipate the bowling department being well-rested or ring-rusty. Any spread punters looking to sell performance spreads for Ryan Sidebottom, Graeme Swann, Stuart Broad, Michael Yardy or Tim Bresnan in the Super Eight games will no doubt expect the latter to be the case in the market where runs, catches, wickets and stumpings are rewarded.
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