What Bettors Should Know About Cricket

Cricket enjoys a huge and diverse global following. Millions of people all over the world enjoy the game for its many different aspects – some enjoy watching cricket or even playing cricket, others enjoy listening to it being broadcast on the radio, and others yet favour reading about the game and discussing its many enjoyable elements with fellow cricket lovers and fans.

The beauty of cricket is of course that you don’t need to have played the game or even know its detailed ins and outs to enjoy the rich and engaging appeal of the game. For this reason, many people enjoy betting on the game without necessarily knowing too much about the rules or the lingo. And while this is fine for having a spot of casual betting fun, those interested in making money from betting on cricket should not underestimate the importance of learning the difference between a wicket and a pitch, or a grubber and a googly.

While recognising that learning the basics of cricket in order to wager intelligent bets is a vast and extensive topic and field of knowledge, a good place to start would be to get on top of the basics.

What To Know About The Players

Since regardless of their batting ability, all eleven players in a cricket team will be required to bat, when picking the so-called “playing eleven”, selectors will always try to create a balanced side. Such a side will usually be made up of the following:

• six reliable batsmen – these will be batsmen of ability and talent specifically regarding batting;
• five reliable bowlers – bowlers chosen for the purpose of bowling won’t necessarily be the world’s greatest batsmen, but will be good at bowling; and
• a wicket-keeper.

Since this equates to twelve, and not the mandatory eleven, one or more of the players will typically be an all-rounder. This is a player good at both batting and bowling. The more all-rounders present in a team, the better, as this provides the captain with options when working out a winning style and tactic.

What To Know About Batting Order

Since getting the batting order right is often the difference between a winning and losing side, how batting order is decided is possibly one of the most important pieces of information to the sports betting beginner.

The captain (usually with input from the coach) gets to decide the batting order. The rule is to place the six best batsmen first in the batting order. This is important for several reasons, including:

• batting is automatically harder at the start of a match. This is because the bowlers are fresh and the ball new, making for a trickier batting game.
• a good batsman is the captain’s best bet to get the game off to a good start. Reliable batsmen can bat for a long time, know when to act aggressively and when to play it safe, and are less likely to be bowled out after only a few runs.

Worth Knowing About Bowlers

Unlike every man being expected to bat, not every player will be called on to bowl. In fact, a captain will oftentimes rely on only 4 or 5 bowlers to take care of most of the overs.

The three main types of bowlers are:

• fast bowlers (also referred to as “pace” bowlers). Fast bowlers will usually spend most of their time and effort making the run-up to the actual bowling of the ball. Their balls come fast and hard.
• medium pace bowlers. Oftentimes referred to as seam bowlers or swing bowlers, depending on their style, medium pace bowlers typically take between 10 and 12 strides before releasing the ball.
• slow bowlers. Also referred to as spin bowlers, leg-spinners, or simply spinners, slow bowlers usually make use of a very short run-up.