It was well over a month ago when England’s cricketers made their way to South Africa, with Captain Andrew Strauss keen to add an away tour victory to a heroic Ashes win.
Over the series’ four Tests, a series draw seems like a fair result and buyers of Sporting Index’s 1-1 draw correct series score spread will be especially pleased with the outcome.
There were few exceptionally high scores in the series, and spread bettors may have been disappointed to see that the only innings to contribute to the ‘Hey, Hey, for the Monkeys!’ spread make-up (total points over 500 in an innings) was England’s 574 first at Durban. There was a couple of particularly low single innings team scores, and sellers of the spread must have been doing somersaults to see South Africa tumble for 133, strangely enough, immediately after England notched the highest innings score.
Buyers of Kevin Pietersen’s series runs spread must have been itching to see the big-hitting former captain back in action in South Africa after missing out on much of the Ashes in the summer. He was a huge disappointment, not only to buyers (and certainly not to sellers of the spread) but also to England fans. A lowly series runs spread make-up of 177 was not what the doctor ordered, but solid scores of 40 and 81 in the first Test at Centurion must have had the spread buyers purring at first. He followed up with 31 at Durban but had no need to pad up for a second-innings. The disasters were reserved for the last Tests however, and after watching KP contribute 0, 6, 7 and 12 in his last four innings you can guarantee spread buyers were going nuts.
Of the players to perform well, both for their team’s benefit and that of buyers of their series runs, bowling index or performance spreads, were Graeme Smith and Morne Morkel. Both have risen in the rankings since the series, Smith to second in the Test batting rankings, and Morkel to seventh in the bowling rankings, also producing a series bowling index spread make-up of 215pts (10pts per wicket, 25pts bonus for a five-wicket haul). On the tourists side, a special mention indeed is owed to one Graeme Swann (it was a good series for Graemes!). He contributed 171 runs thanks mainly to a 85 in the first Test, and racked up 260pts for his bowling index series spread, the most of any player. However, buyers of his all-round performance index spread – where 1pt is awarded per run, 10pts per catch, 20pts per wicket and 20pts per stumping – had the most to cheer about. His final spread make-up was a staggering 621pts, a full 193pts more than his nearest rival in that spread market, Dale Steyn.