The ten best one-day sides in world cricket are in England and Wales for the next month or so doing battle across nine games each, looking to claim one of the four spots available in the semifinals in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. Holders Australia are amongst those seeking to claim the victory in what promises to be a feast of cricket across the month.
The Australians will be staying on after the World Cup to compete in the 2019 Ashes Series later in the summer, but we will bring you more on that nearer the time. For the time being, One Day action is the name of the game with 50 overs apiece and the pressure on to score as many runs as possible to ensure your opponents can’t catch you or run out of wickets trying to do so.
If you fancy a flutter on the World Cup Cricket this summer then bet365 Sport has a number of different markets available including Outright Winner betting as well as betting on who will be the top scoring batsman and the leading wicket taker at the tournament. New customers who fancy a bet on these markets can join using the latest bet365 New Customer Promotion to receive an added bonus or two when they sign up and start betting on the site.
Let’s now preview the tournament in a bit more detail by taking a quick look back at the history of the World Cup tournament.
Cricket World Cup – A Historical View
The first Cricket World Cup was played in England back in 1975 and it would be the home of the tournament for the first three events. The West Indies won both the opening events, beating Australia in 1975 and England in 1979 to win what would so far be their only two World Cup titles.
India won the next tournament in 1983 and by 1987, the tournament had moved to India where Australia landed a victory over England. England would lose again four years later when in Australia Pakistan won by 22 runs in a tense battle in Melbourne. That appearance was England’s last in the final of this event.
Sri Lanka won on the subcontinent back in 1996 beating Australia in the final but there then followed a real period of dominance for the Aussies who won four of the next five tournaments, including three in a row from 1999 to 2007 as well as in 2015, with India’s win on home soil the only one breaking the Australian’s dominance in that period.
Australia have won five Cricket World Cups with the West Indies and India landing two apiece, Sri Lanka and Pakistan have both landed a single win. England, New Zealand and South Africa are yet to record a win in the tournament out of all the major cricketing nations around the world.
Cricket World Cup – Current Outright Odds
- England – 7/4 favourites
- India – 10/3
- Australia – 7/2
- New Zealand – 8/1
- West Indies – 9/1
- South Africa – 22/1
- Pakistan – 25/1
- Bangladesh – 33/1
- Sri Lanka – 66/1
- Afghanistan – 100/1
*All odds were correct as of 12.15pm on Monday 3rd June 2019 at bet365 Sport.
England are the favourites for the tournament after rising to the top of the World Rankings in One Day Cricket over the last few years. A comprehensive win over Pakistan following a hard-fought draw with the West Indies in the winter ensuring that Eoin Morgan’s team enter the tournament as the favourites.
With home support England will be formidable but playing at home does come with added pressures and having lost to Australia in one of their final two warm up games, England will be well aware that just one-off day can have a dramatic impact on their chances of success. Even so, home support will be desperate for the team to do well, especially in a trophy that they are yet to win.
Their main rivals will likely be India and Australia. India have a quality batting line up and have two of the best one day batsmen in the world in their team. With a fine bowling attack led by Jasprit Bumrah, they will also be formidable with the ball in hand too.
Australia are always strong in this tournament having been runners up twice and winner’s five times. No other team comes close to matching that record over the years and they have the knack of pulling out the results when it matters most moreso than any other team in the world game.
One to watch though is New Zealand who have a talented team and who on their day are more than capable of beating any opponent.
World Cup Results
We have already had five games in the tournament so far and the results have been as follows:
- England beat South Africa by 104 runs
- West Indies beat Pakistan by 7 wickets
- New Zealand beat Sri Lanka by 10 wickets
- Australia beat Afghanistan by 7 wickets
- Bangladesh beat South Africa by 21 runs
At the time of writing England are in action in their second game against Pakistan the result of which will be known a few hours after this article has been posted on site.
World Cup Tips
To Win – India – 7/2
India don’t start their World Cup campaign until well after the other teams but even so, I don’t think that will be too detrimental to their hopes. For me they are the most rounded team in World Cricket in all aspects of the game and they have enough talent with the bat and ball in order to win this trophy, even if they tend to perform to their best only in front of their home crowd.
Top Batsman – Virat Kohli (India) – 7/1
There’s lots of potential winners of this prize including David Warner of Australia, Joe Root, Jason Roy or Johnny Bairstow of England, or maybe Martin Guptill of New Zealand but Kohli is the best batsman in the world at the moment in test games and one-day cricket and as skipper of India, he will know the onus falls to him to steady the team and provide plenty of runs, which he tends to do on a stunningly regular basis.
Top Bowler – Jasprit Bumrah (India) – 12/1
Bumrah is ranked the best bowler in the world in one day cricket and his pace and accuracy will be absolutely fundamental to India’s chances of success. He is a talented and often unplayable bowler and a focal point of the India attack. If he fires, then India’s chances of success in the tournament increase hugely.
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