The Australian players make like it but it makes for pretty boring cricket. When they win all the time, it seems anti-climatic. This first happened with the Pakistanis who just about gave up and now the West Indies seem to be afflicted by the same thing.
Against Australia in Melbourne, they restricted Australia to a chaseable 256 but the West Indian batting was woeful. At 3/12 the game was basically over and then the last six wickets fell for 35 handing Australia a 114 run win.
The crowds are down and the public don’t seem to be into the 50 over game. You can’t really blame them when it’s so boring and predictable.
The Australians are playing good cricket – they can’t be questioned. They are batting, bowling and fielding well which is what you have to do in this level of the game. They are taking their catches and run-outs and that is just making the victory even more of a sure thing. Cricket betting is paying next to nothing for an Australian win.
Ryan Harris has come into the side and bowled fantastically well. Shane Watson is batting well as is Cameron White. Basically, everything Australia is trying is working well while the opposition can’t take a trick.
If Chris Gayle is going to make statements, that’s fine but he need to be able to back them up with the bat. Making a quick-fire 20 or 30 is neither here nor there. He needs to make a big hundred because it’s pretty clear that if he doesn’t fire the rest of the team is going to score runs.
There are four more of these matches followed by two Twenty20 games. Expect these to be sellouts, that is just the way things seem to be headed. This is especially the case if the last two games of the five 50 over games are dead rubbers.
For the West Indies, Kumar Roach and Kieron Pollard both bowled well in the opening game but honestly that would be the only positive to come out of the match.
What is the point of winning the toss and sending the opposition in if you restrict them to an ok score but then chase it down so pathetically? You would be far better off trying to post a score and then defend it.
Some things for Chris Gayle to think about ahead of the next game in Adelaide.
David Wiseman writes for this blog. He also writes about AFL betting.


