Story World Cup Glory? The Black Caps' Dream ***India v Bangladesh: See if your bets paid off!***

[MaD]

-$5000 on India to win the match
-$5000 on Junaid Siddique to score more runs
-$5000 on Sreesanth to take the most wickets

 

[CG123]

I bet:
-$5000 on India to win the match
-$5000 on the team who wins the toss to Bat
-$5000 on Gambhir & Sehwag to have the higher opening partnership

Sending 15,000 vCash...

You stuffed up big time, Who will score more runs out of?
Virender Sehwag: $2.10
Gautam Gambhir: $2.50
I can bet a billion dollars on each, and I'll never lose...

 

[just_cricket]

I bet:
- $7000 for india to win the game
- $3000 for sewagh and gambhir, highest opening partnership

sending 10,000vcash......

Mate, thanks for taking part but the limit for a bet is $5000.
You can bet the extra $2000 you have sent on something else if you like.

MaD, your bets have been counted and your vcash has been received.
Same for you CG123, with the Sehwag-Gambhir thing- yeah, well spotted. My mistake, but I'll stop anyone from betting twice on the same thing- but well spotted, I'll have to remember that for the future...

Thanks guys, please, plenty more of you enter this. This really is like real life betting. (Just don't get addicted!)

 

[riz7khan12]

Mate, thanks for taking part but the limit for a bet is $5000.
You can bet the extra $2000 you have sent on something else if you like.

MaD, your bets have been counted and your vcash has been received.
Same for you CG123, with the Sehwag-Gambhir thing- yeah, well spotted. My mistake, but I'll stop anyone from betting twice on the same thing- but well spotted, I'll have to remember that for the future...

Thanks guys, please, plenty more of you enter this. This really is like real life betting. (Just don't get addicted!)

yeah i fixed it now, 5000 on india winning, 5000 on sewagh/gambhir higher opening partnership.

 

[just_cricket]

There is still another day to bet! Get your money on something- it does make the game a hell of a lot more interesting!
India vs Bangladesh is tomorrow. I am planning to do review/bulletin type coverage for the bigger non-NZ games, and games between NZ and minnows. The games between NZ and counties like Australia will be covered LIVE!

 

[Gaurav_7]

First, very good start mate. Keep it up. I love your presentation. I have also read your earlier story and that was phenomenal. Hope to see something like that here as well. Good Luck!

My predictions -

I bet:
-$5000 on India to win the match.
-$5000 on Gambhir to score more runs than Sehwag.
-$5000 on team will elect to bowl first after winning the toss.

 

[just_cricket]

All bets and vcash received- tomorrow the first match will take place.

 

[just_cricket]

The Tournament Opener: Bangladesh v India at Dhaka

India have taken the first blood in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, with a 52 run victory over Bangladesh at Dhaka.
The Dhaka pitch is known as a traditional spinners' wicket- dry, dusty, with just enough dead grass to grip and turn. However, in an attempt to prolong the pitch's use the groundsman watered the pitch extensively and left just a little bit of grass alive on the surface.
Bangladeshi captain Shakib Al-Hasan won the toss and, sensing that there was a bit in it for the pace bowlers, elected to bowl first.

India's Innings
He was rewarded for his decision almost immediately, as Gambhir nicked one to Mehrab Hossain jnr. at first slip off Mashrafe off the 3rd ball of the day.
Alaram bells were ringing for India as Tendulkar strode out to join Sehwag at the crease, but the little master appeared to settle them with a boundary first ball. Sehwag then launched a simply unbelievable attack on the Bangladesh openers, striking three massive sixes and a series of fours, to blast India to 50/1 after just 6 overs, without Tendulkar adding a further run. However, with the fifty just having been brought up, Mortaza produced the perfect outswinger to Tendulkar who edged it to wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim.
Sehwag continued his onslaught, and despite new batsman Suresh Raina striking the ball nicely and scoring at a run a ball, Sehwag's 50 came when the score was at just 65, off just 19 balls.
Having blasted his way to 70 off just 29 balls and left the pace bowlers in tatters, captain Shakib Al-Hasan brought himself on and was immediately successful, trapping Sehwag lbw trying to sweep.
Inevitably this slowed the run rate dramatically, as the Indians looked to rebuild and set themselves for a launch in the last 10 overs, with neither powerplay having yet been taken. However, they lost wickets at regular intervals, with Al-Hasan doing the damage as Raina, Yuvraj, Badrinath and Dhoni all made small contributions, but none of them making over 30. Mashrafe and Shahadat Hossain returned after the bowling powerplay had been taken when Mahmudullah and Shakib were bowling, and the pair bowled extremely economically as they sought to 'fix their figures' having gone for over 9 an over in their first spells. However it was Syed Rasel who had the most remarkable figures by a pace bowler, conceding just 3.4 runs an over from his 10 overs.
During all this, the lower order of Pragyan Ojha, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel and Sreesanth all scored very slowly, all with strike rates below 50, Sharma's 10 not out coming off 63 balls. This meant the innings was going nowhere due to some very tight Bangladesh bowling, and Mashrafe took his third wicket in the last over to bowl out India for a meagre 208, after being at one stage 97/2 off 9 overs!

Virender Sehwag was at his blistering best and dominated
the opening overs, but Shakib Al-Hasan was the star with the ball,
picking up 4/39 and turning the innings around in the middle and later overs.​

Bangladesh's Innings
Openers Tamim Iqbal and Junaid Siddique got Bangladesh underway to a positive start. Iqbal in particular looked in good touch, finding the middle of the bat frequently and playing with beautiful timing. These two looked as though they may be going to cruise through to the target, scoring at around 5.5 an over, and really looking at ease against Sharma and Sreesanth, on what was now already a dead pitch. However, India's luck turned as Iqbal played a solid backfoot defensive shot off Sreesanth, only for the ball to hit his foot on a bizarre enough angle for the ball to ricochet onto his stumps. Unlucky for the talented Iqbal, but a meant a big breakthrough for the Indians as they took their first wicket with the score at 46.
Pragyan Ojha came into the attack and had immediate success, sneaking through Siddique's defense to bowl him for 22. When he trapped new batsman Rajin Saleh for a golden duck he was on a hat-trick with the first ball of his next over. He had a half shout for lbw against Mohammad Ashraful, which was turned down by the umpire, but with the next ball he did claim Ashraful's wicket lbw, meaning that he had taken 3 wicket in 4 balls.
Much like India's innings, the Bangladeshi middle/lower order managed to make small contributions, and a brief partnership ensued between Shakib and Mehrab Hossain jnr. Shakib punched the spinners down the ground and played very straight, while Hossain jnr. tended to cut, pull and sweep both Ojha and Yuvraj, with very quick and delicate foot movement. However, probably the defining moment of the match was when Shakib was dismissed in controversial circumstances. Ojha bowled a full length delivery, which the Bangladeshi captain came down the wicket to, and yorked himself. He pushed at the ball, and it ballooned to Yuvraj Singh and shortish mid off. The Indians of course were very confident but Shakib felt it was a bump ball (i.e. he had hit the ball straight into the ground). After a quick conference the umpires gave him out, but TV replays (which the umpires weren't permitted to refer to) confirmed that the ball did in fact hit the ground immediately after Shakib struck it.
India continued to use their battery of spinners- Ojha, Yuvraj, and Sehwag. Despite the latter two being only part-timers, the pitch was now so dry and helpful to spin that they too were a real handful. Following Shakib's dismissal Mehrab Hossain jnr. appeared to lose concentration and charged down the pitch getting a thin edge to MS Dhoni and having to leave for 28.
With the score at 130/6 both teams were in it- but India were now definitely the favourites. Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah threatened briefly to make a game of it, but when both succumbed to hitting Yuvraj in the air at a catchable height, the game was all but lost, with the score at 148/8, still 60 runs behind and only Mashrafe, Shahadat Hossain and Syed Rasel available to bat. Predictably the Indian spinners polished off the last two wickets quickly, to give them the victory in what was for a long time a very close match- much closer than they end scorecard might suggest.

Iqbal's classy cameo at the top of the order put Bangladesh in
the box seat for a short time, but it was Pragyan Ojha who
swung honours back India's way, with his four top order wickets.​

In the end Pragyan Ojha was named Man of the Match with 4/25, impressive figures, but a few people felt that Sehwag was unlucky not to grab the MOM award, as he took 2/22 and scored easily the highest score in the match in thrilling fashion. On a spinner friendly pitch, his innings, one felt, was the difference. So India take the first points of the World Cup this year.

(Click "Full Scorecard" at the top right of the page to view the scorecard).

 

[CG123]

Lol, my bets failed badly...
Not really any surprises in the match result, which was the only thing I got right.

 

[just_cricket]

Lol, my bets failed badly...
Not really any surprises in the match result, which was the only thing I got right.

Yeah, can I have some feedback on the whole betting thing? I feel there's not enough reward, as I can't make the odds huge without doing what I did with Gambhir and Sehwag. I like the idea of it, but I think it's too prone to making people lose vcash, whereas I want users to finish off making some margin of profit. Any suggestions?

 

[MaD]

Excellent update, great writing and presentation, you're definitely one of the better story writers i've seen on PC

Great innings by Sehwag and Ojha did well, India won pretty easy as expected

 

[riz7khan12]

Yeah, can I have some feedback on the whole betting thing? I feel there's not enough reward, as I can't make the odds huge without doing what I did with Gambhir and Sehwag. I like the idea of it, but I think it's too prone to making people lose vcash, whereas I want users to finish off making some margin of profit. Any suggestions?

haha lol, u would be the first "bookie" to actually make other people get a profit.

love the betting system, betting always carries a risk so on some ocassions u win on most u lose.

btw ur story writing skills are exceptional :hpraise

 

[just_cricket]

BETS:

CG123: $6500 for India winning
MaD: $6500 for India winning
riz7khan12: $6500 for India winning
User2010: $15000 for team winning the toss bowling, $6500 for India winnings= $21500

Vcash sent

 

[just_cricket]

This has been inactive for some time- my heart is just not really in it. I seem to be getting into a bad habit of starting stories without finishing them off. There is a small chance I may return to this, but I want to have a go at an HRV Cup story, and if I complete that/it fails miserably, I want to finish off my Test World Medal Story, as I think it was going well and I really enjoyed it- I just needed a break, and in a few months I will be back to it. Unfortunately this story has been a classic epicphail, but I there is an outside chance I may get back to it- perhaps nearer the actual 2011 World Cup?

 

[riz7khan12]

lol:rtfl:rtfl