World Cup cricket semi final heading for betting records

Story by Richard Hutchinson on 2011-03-30 12:54:18

MOHALI, India - The World Cup semi final between India and Pakistan is heading to break records for the amount bet on a single cricket match following an exciting first innings by India.

Bookmakers interviewed by India Bet said that the amounts wagered on the match had been "staggering" and "phenomenal" with huge swings in the betting market as India started off their innings with a bang before slumping to 207 for 6. At that point Pakistan became the bookies' favourite to win the match, only for India to recover to 260 for 9 at the end of 50 overs, at which point they were offered at odds of 1.70 to win the match (bet $100 to make $70 profit).

On Betfair at the half way point of the match there had been $26,734,446 matched on the game. The lowest price matched on India was 1.31 and the highest price on Pakistan was 4.20.

At the start of the game with India winning the toss the home side were on offer at 1/2 and Pakistan at 2/1 in a stadium where the side batting first has a statistical advantage. Wahab Riaz was the star for Pakistan with five wickets while Tendulkar was the top scorer for India with 85 runs - he had been 3/1 to top score for the Indians.