Sport is made for betting

I got you, do-do-doo....... sang the legendary James Brown. England suffer deep embarrassment again. Not only losing to Bangladesh, but looking gone (traded at 10), taking quick wickets to trade 1.03, and then screwing it up! Great death bowling from James Anderson - from Cricinfo Just to add to the tension it's batting Powerplay time. Fielders have to come in 33 needed from 30. Bangladesh have it all to do. Prayers from the crowd... 45.1 Anderson to Mahmudullah, 5 wides, ...are answered here! Heady stuff for the Bangladeshis as Anderson spears this down the leg side, off it went past Prior and skimmed away for five wides! 45.1 Anderson to Mahmudullah, 1 run, down the leg side again, Mahmudullah clips classily to deep square. What a better option he is than Ashraful 45.2 Anderson to Shafiul Islam, 1 run, push and go from Shafiul! Very smart, just sat back, dropped it to mid-off and hared down the other end. The single is greeted with jumping ovations from the crowd 45.3 A...

Excuse me while I piss myself, over and over again. The greatest gubbing of all time. That's over £8 million traded at 1.04 or shorter. Almost £5 million at 1.02 or shorter. £2.7m matched at 1.01. England, fresh from possibly the best ODI of all-time, the 338 runs apiece tie with India on Sunday. They scored 327 off 50 overs, a huge score against any side. Surely an ICC associate member like Ireland, a complete minnow in the world of cricket, couldn't chase that down? Enter Kevin O'Brien and a magnificent innings of 113 off 63 balls. The fastest World Cup century of all time. England brought their gun bowlers and on this perfect batting pitch, Ireland made them look like village pie-chuckers!

Australia have been completely outplayed in this Ashes series. With the exception of the WACA where one cricket expert on Twitter said 'Aliens invaded Mitchell Johnson's body for a week and then left', it hasn't even been close. England have been everything Australia used to be - relentless, impossible to budge and mentally superior, not forgetting better at little things like batting, bowling and fielding. Most of the Australian side are now playing for their futures. Several should be marked 'Never to play Test cricket again', however mitigating factors such as lack of depth, spineless selectors and most of them play for NSW will give some of them more chances than they deserve. Carrying on like spoilt children though when decisions go against you, the ball CLEARLY bounces in front of the catcher or not clapping the batsman when they reach 50 or 100 is just pathetic. It's one thing to hate losing - all top sportspeople hate losing, but sooking, whingei...

England all out 260, Australia 0/25 in reply. The obvious highlight of the day was Peter Siddle's glorious hat-trick. I'd had a bit of a snooze on the couch for a couple of hours, only to be woken by the first wicket, then woke up properly when Prior was skittled and then was jumping around the lounge room when Broad was out first ball. Great performance from the birthday boy, whose selection was questioned by many (not me though, he's a Victorian, thus he is champ!) Despite England being knocked over on day one, the pitch didn't seem to have any demons in it. The Australian bowlers as a whole performed well, with the exception of left-arm tripe bowler Mitchell Johnson. Expensive and didn't see him threaten at all. The others were discplined, bowling the right line and the right length for the majority of the day. If you put it in the right place often enough against batsmen who aren't the world's best, they'll get themselves out soon enough. Credit ...

Cricket has to be commended for trialling modern technology, but they've got to do a better job than the referral experiment in the West Indies v England series. If you're going to make the crowd wait for a decision, at least get it right! There have been some dead set shockers so far, and it's only the first test of the series. You can't expect umpires to be perfect when they only see the action once, at full pace. But when the bloke in the box with all the replays can only do worse, then what's the point??

It pains me to say it but the dynasty is over. It had to happen with the retirement in recent years of McGrath and Warne, but this series against South Africa is confirming it. Hayden is past it, Ponting doesn't have any rabbits to pull out of the hat as captain, Mike Hussey is out of form (but will be back), Brett Lee is injured and on his last legs, Stuart Clark is injured and has been found out on flat pitches, and there is no sign of a wrist-spinner anywhere. The Ashes next year might be quite a tight one. Not sure if I could jump ship to back England, but I'd certainly be wanting to lay Australia at this stage. They could quite easily go to South Africa and lose three series in a row...