Sri Lanka v India, 2nd Test at Colombo

Have transferred some green from India to Sri Lanka by laying a bit of draw and a bit of India. Most green still on India and red on draw.

It's a long way for SL to win from here and I'm not even thinking about them at the moment. They need 4 more wickets, bat really well, then get 10 more wickets and then chase down in the final inns. 4.5 looks short to me for that scenario.
Weather is my main concern but I have no control over that. Backed India at 3.4 yesterday so I'm going to roll with that for now.

Spin will become more and more important, and India's 1st inn runs more valuable. Don't see SL reaching India's likely 1st inn score of 350+. If they do, rain will probably bring the draw right in. So keeping on India with a smallish saver on the draw.

I do not like Sri Lanka at these prices either but have gone for a lay of the draw and will see what transpires today :)

Forecasts have the likelyhood of rain increasing from Sat. Bar a SL collapse, I expect the draw to be shorter at stumps Saturday.

https://twitter.com/jontyrhodes8

Nice and sunny this morning in Colombo

If you think that was unlucky not disturbing the bails and bowling him, look at this!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-4URGcCNro

I've cashed out now, small overall green. I don't like to see the new ball not carrying to the slips. Going to watch for a bit and see what happens

That wicket off a no ball looking crucial.

Greening up, as SL could come close to India's total and the P Sara pitch tends to deteriorate quite quickly. So could see low 2nd inn scores.

Rahane does Karate and is a Judo Black Belt!

That expalains alot! I wondered how the mighty atom can pack such a punch! Judo must makes you strong beyond your size.

Bucketing down.

great to see some proper test cricket, the ashes has been far from that, if not an amateur approach to this particular style of cricket !!!

who's on what here?

I got India at 4.46. Got my troosers taken down at The Oval by a shambles of a side. Some of them should be arrested for impersonating a batsman!

I figured runs on the board is important here. Batting last will be a huge test. Any uneven bounce and India have enough pace to ally with the leggie and Ashwin.

Currently.

SL -500
India +250
Draw +150

switched to the draw for now considering India would have to bat most of tomorrow to get a big enough lead and the weather forecast seems to be getting worse. may be quite a few stoppages tomorrow

thanks chaps. Will look at weather again and maybe take some cover on the draw

Sri +116
India +175
Draw -126

Could cash out for +44 but decided to hold the position for now.

has the weather changed?

At the start of the match it was rain every day. I have seen nothing different on the forecast. Looks like Noah's Ark but it is usually quick rain. I am going to ask my Accountant to phone home!

I've decided to ignore tropical forecasts, they are a load of horlicks. Having said that it could rain all day tomorrow, or not as the case may be.

I am going to take insurance.

India only 1 down and should bat until around tea. With that and the predicted showers should see the draw at 2 or lower today.

Satellite seems to indicate a longer period of rain today. Around mid-afternoon.

Definately more cloud around today. Just have to let the game develop and from an India point of view add wear and tear to the pitch. Que sera sera.

Shouldn't be coming back out after tea here. 4 sessions to bowl them out, lead of 370 odd. Hope Kohli doesn't go down the negative Dhoni route.

370 lead at tea. Should be enough.

well they have to allow for lsoing 10 overs tonight and some tomorrow. If they don't declare will they get a crack with the second new ball? I don't think they will declare however!

It's India, they won't declare. Prob aim for a lead of 400.

Ha!

Lets hope they get bowled out instead!

have levelled out

lets hope yadav gets in quickly. he won't die wondering!

A couple more overs after this tops surely. No point wasting time going after 425.

what a joke still batting !!!!

its times like these i hope it rains and sri lanka are nine down, sorry draw layers, but only like 120 overs left in game max !!!

400 up. End of the over surely

maybe 500 in 90 over kholi very disappointing !!!

sri lanka can not believe their luck taking out overs they do not need to bet, like 7 runs in 3 overs

pathetic from kohli, hope SL get a draw here.

poor show by the new captain of india, sign of thing to come maybe !!

hey kohli, you are 1-0 down in the series!

9 runs in 4 overs and still batting, kholi what are you doing !!

412 in around 115 overs about 3.5 runs per over, interesting !!!

fair enough in the end if you look at the equation !!

Poor captaincy. Batted on too long - especially after the sh1te he was talking beforehand about being prepared to lose in order to win.

where is rain???.i want to hack all those weather websites.

rain is south of Colombo at the moment

bad light coming i think

india bat 1 hour to long

still got 9 wickets to take

shocking shot !!!!

guard of honor for sangakarra

sun coming out and 4 bungers

sanga and clarke retire within the same week

sanga better imo

did you put your bat up pttt

sorry slip I do not understand

did you do the guard of honor for kumar sangakarra

funny, no was too tearful !!!

Kumar one of the best I've seen and I've not seen nearly enough of him.

over 12000 test runs at an average of 57, not forgetting his 14000 ODI runs and has been wicket keeper for most of his career, arguably the best wicket keeper batsmen ever !!

No argument from me

No argument from me

you could actually rate sangakarra has best batsman of all time above tendulkar and bradman

no you couldn't!

Matthews averages 52! well I never., mind you I have always rated him as a batsman if not an opening bowler!

damm i missed sangas final out

did you cry whispearing

nah!

I saw him bat at The Oval. So much time. A real gentleman too. Up there with Dravid in my book.

Bayliss talking about Sanga on radio5lsx slip

Bradman completely distorts the all time list, think Sangas 133 tests at 57 average is as good as bradmans 99 aver in 66 tests !!!

no Bradman is 30 above his nearest peer. George Headley only managed 60 or so!

different era as well, more travelling, arguably better all round quality opposition !!! 133 tests verses 66 is a big difference

In first-class cricket Grace had a similar lead. He and Bradman can only be assessed in relation to their contemporaries and are easily the two greatest batsmen of all time.

beleive you should be judged on the era, and the opposition, Brian Lara is definitely the most gifted batsmen of all time

bradman was definitely the best in his era, as probably Sachin and Lara in the modern era, but impossible to compare and say one is greater than the other !!!

what about best spinner ever kumble, warne, murali,

Warne by a short head !!

was SF Barnes almost a spinner?

Barnes like a lot in his day mixed it up.

SL need to go at 3.8 and over for 90 overs on a day 5 pitch. Not that I think we will get 90 overs. Satellite indicates some rain.

Roshan Abeysinghe ‏@RoshanCricket
SL wouldnt mind the look of the weather this morning! Its gray clouds overhead and rain falling over the ground right now.

Been raining at night and started pouring now. Looks good for SL

Sun is out...

first bal and out

first bal and out

Some pretty wretched batting about at the moment. The draw was under 2s about 2 hours ago

Hi Jucel, hope you did well in this match. When is the next one and what weather will you be expecting?

Next match at the SSC, Colombo, which has a history of draws. Although matches seem more rain affected than P Sara, which is just chance.

Another draw lay or India back to start IMO.

Thanks pxb, I'm beginning to like Sri Lankan Test matches. Lost my nerve yesterday though when India played on after tea. Should not have worried.

The key to sub-continent Tests is to get a handle on the weather, when forecasts aren't worth much and radars are either non-existent or carp.

A modest win for me in this match, but I was expecting SL to bat better and the weather to play a bigger role. Ce la vie.

Didn't do too bad. Smallish win in the end as I ended up burning some cash on the last day.
Although I try to disregard the weather, those forecasts of doom are always lurking in the back of my head.

This test confirms all my fears for those betting on cricket. There was a very large and strange amount of activity in the betting market around 4.20am (UK time) when the Indian odds drifted from 18 to 400 before settling around 36, at the same time the draw drifted alarmingly around 1/2 a point while a win for India was smashed 20 clicks, your not expecting us to believe someone had a sudden inclination 2 hours before the start of play that this would end like this and proceeded to empty a substantial amount of collateral on this result or more likely this was money from outside UK (India),whatever the source potentially someone (some party) potentially had information on the outcome prior the conclusion. Betfair have all the information and records to have this one looked at,the sudden collapse from 72/2 to 134 all out aligns perfectly with this market movers view.  Well done to those that made a profit but day five stunk and this really should be investigated by betfair marketing sources after all its your information.

You regularly see those kind of moves in subcontinent matches. It's subcontinent bookies laying off. I make decent money off them.

I agree in a sense that subcontinent bookmakers lay off on our markets and the timing adds up, what doesn't add up is the pattern. surely a bookmaker makes his profit in the margins so for them to lay any price regardless up to 20 times over the odds and consistently double the odds may dilute that theory. I was intrigued with this move but more fascinated by the SL collapse which duly followed. Coincidental you decide. All I am pointing out is a hugely irregular betting pattern followed almost immediately by the collapse of a teams last 8 wickets for around 60 runs.

All I can say is I have been betting on subcontinent Tests for a long time and in modesty, I do well on them. I didn't see the price moves you talk about. They do seem large, and I didn't catch them - sigh - but if there were regular fixes, I'm sure I would have noticed.

I didn't see what Luke was talking about either.

I wasn't going to bet on this match but made a balancing bet because England were so pathetic at The Oval. I have some regrets in that I didn't exploit the opening weary of exposing myself further after the goings on at Kennington.

I think I piled into India at 3.5 then 2.5 then unfortunately backed them up to 9's with small bets. I felt 400 was a good total and so it proved. India were well priced throughout the match. India are much stronger batting and bowling than Sri Lanka that is clear for all to see. The pitch would spin. Sl would bat last.

If India went out to 36 let alone 400 I would have checked the weather and banged it hard for a once in a lifetime free throw!

Sometimes The Emperor doesn't wear any clothes. You have to back your judgement. There are many here who know a lot about cricket.

Sometimes you just get lucky too. I won my biggest bet when NZ beat WI. I was on a hotel web cam looking at a beach all night and early morning. The rain didn't materialise...but....there was Chanderpaul...and he got stumped for the first time ever in his 142'nd Test Match! If someone drops their troosers it's rude not to! Take your chance!

Luke must be talking about Lanka odds. I put in a lay of Lanka at 19 several hours before play, in the hope the match would start under sunny skies. Their chances were slim if the full 90 overs were played. Any rain, and it's no surprise their odds blew out quickly.