How to bet on Cricket | ProTipster Academy
Would you like to know how to bet on cricket and win? As much as we’d love to promise guaranteed earnings from cricket betting, we just can’t do that. But what we can do is to help you with some advice we’ve learned from the best tipsters about what you should know before placing your cricket bets.
How to bet on Cricket: The Basics
The first thing to make sure is that you actually understand the game of cricket itself. For outsiders, it can look very complex, with lots of difficult to understand jargon and statistics but the basics are simple.
Each team plays with eleven players and take turns to bat and bowl/field. They play on the roughly circular ground with a rectangular “pitch” in the middle. The pitch has much shorter grass than the outfield and is where the majority of the action takes place. It has “wickets” at either of the longer ends, which are made of three stumps standing upright with two bails balanced across the top of them. There are also markings drawn on the pitch which show the batsman where he must stand to be “in” and where the bowler cannot cross when he bowls the ball.
Each time a team bats is called an innings. A team is allowed to have ten players out before the innings is over. Bowlers bowl six balls at a time in what is called an “over”. An innings can be a limited number of overs in the shorter forms of the game.
The job of the batters is to stop the ball from hitting the wicket by hitting the ball. Batters score runs by running between the wickets when they have hit the ball, scoring six if the ball gets to the boundary of the field without touching the ground and four if it does touch the ground before making it to the edge. It’s usually possible to make over/under bets on a team score and to bet on which player will score the most runs in the inning pre-match.
The job of the bowlers and fielders is to get the batsman out. They can do this by hitting the wickets with the ball when it is bowled, or by throwing it from the outfield when the batsman is not behind his line. They can also get the batsman out by catching the ball if it has not touched the ground after the batsman has hit it. Punters can bet on which player will take the most wickets before a match or even how a player will get out next in-play.
How to bet on Cricket: The Formats
Cricket is different to many other sports in that there are different formats played in the game by the same team. While all formats have the same basic rules such as the number of players on the field and the equipment used, there are special rules in place for each type of cricket game that effect how the game is played. We’ve outlined what these are below:
1) Test Matches / First Class Matches
Test matches and First Class matches are the longest and most traditional games in the game of cricket. Test matches are played between elite international teams, while First Class games can be played by ordinary international teams or domestic clubs. Test matches last for up to five days of play while a First Class game lasts for four.
Each team are allowed to bat for up to two innings in the match, with the winning team being the one with the highest number of runs. In Test matches there are supposed to be 90 overs bowled per day although this can be reduced by a number of factors such as the weather and light conditions. First Class matches vary in the amount of overs that are to be bowled per day based on the competition.
2) One Day Internationals / List A Matches
Unlike Test and First-Class matches, One Day Internationals (ODIs) and List A matches take place over a single day. Teams bat one innings each which is limited to a certain number of overs – generally 50. However, this may get shortened by factors like weather and light conditions. ODIs are played between international teams as the name suggests while List A games are played between domestic clubs.
Teams are restricted in the placement of fielders and the number of overs each bowlers can bowl in a game. This produces a more attacking game with more runs scored in a shorter period. An attempt is also made to prevent ODI and List A games ending in a draw.
If a match is ended earlier than it should be because of weather or other conditions, then a complex calculation called the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method is used to work out which team is a winner. Because this is not easy to work out, the “par” score is generally shown by score sites while the second team is batting.
3) T20 Internationals and T20 matches
T20 games are the shortest and most modern form of cricket. Each team bats for just 20 overs in one innings. There are restrictions on where a team can place it’s fielders and how many overs a bowler can bowl, along with the time taken to bowl. This makes for a quicker game with much more hitting and excitement.
T20 games are the biggest format in cricket at the moment with many prestigious tournaments to bet on. These include the Indian Premier League (IPL), the Big Bash League (BBL) in Australia and the T20 Blast in England.
How to bet on Cricket: Conditions to watch for
Cricket is a summer sport and is easily affected by various conditions such as the weather. These conditions need to be thought about when placing a bet as they can massively affect the outcome of a game.
The weather is an important factor. Cricket is unsafe to be played when it is raining and umpires will stop play if rainfall at the ground is too bad. This can in turn shorten the amount of time a team has to bat or bowl and can affect the tactics a team employs to get a positive result.
Wet weather also affects how the ball moves in the air even if it is not raining, which can make life difficult for batsmen and easier for bowlers. Dry and hot weather on the other hand makes it much easier to hit the ball and tires out players quickly.
The pitch is an important factor too. While there are rules about how a pitch is to be prepared, it is down to the groundsman looking after the ground to decide how much to mow the pitch and how frequently before a game.
A dry pitch can crack creating uneven bounce which can make bowlers more unpredictable while a wet pitch causes the ball to skid off the turf and bounce lower. The length of grass can also affect how the ball bounces and moves, with a “greener” pitch being much more unpredictable.
Another factor to bear in mind is the toss. Before a game, the two captains will toss a coin in the middle of the field to decide which team gets to choose whether they want to bat or field first. The more unpredictable the weather or the pitch is, the more important it is for a team to win the toss.
ProTipster isn’t just a site for you to find expert tips to help you with how to bet on cricket. You can learn about your own betting trends and biases without risking a penny by posting tips on the ProTipster site and using the data we share with you to analyse your own results. We’ll even reward you with ProTipster coins for doing so – post your next tips right here.
Best Cricket Betting Sites
Are you ready to place your first bet on cricket? We've created a list of the best online betting sites for Cricket. Our Experts analyzed various factors, including available markets for cricket betting, odds, limits and bonuses. Below you can find a list of reliable and trusted bookmakers where you can place your cricket wagers.
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