World Cup Betting 
/ Jamie "The Pacman" Pacheco / 02 March 2011 / Leave a Comment 
Kevin O'Brien almost single-handedly won the game for Ireland
"Things were hardly looking that bright when Ireland were 111-5 either and England traded at 1.01 for £2.7 million, 1.02 for £2.18 million and plenty of other huge sums at prohibitively short prices."
The first upset of this World Cup took place this afternoon and it was England who found themselves on the wrong end of it...
Ireland caused arguably the greatest Cricket World Cup upset of all time this afternoon when they beat England after being matched at [400.0] In-Play. It's not the first-time that a so-called minnow beats a Test side at a World Cup but it was the manner of the defeat that was such a surprise.
The 327 that England posted courtesy of good contributions from Jonathan Trott (92) and Ian Bell (81) would have probably been good enough to beat the very best sides in the world and Ireland got off to the worst possible start when skipper William Porterfield departed for a duck. Things were hardly looking that bright when Ireland were 111-5 either and England traded at [1.01] for £2.7 million, [1.02] for £2.18 million and plenty of other huge sums at prohibitively short prices. But up stepped Nottinghamshire big-hitter Kevin O'Brien who with nothing to lose decided that playing the remaining 28 overs like the back end of a T20 match was the way to go.
It worked and as the burly right-hander continued to strike boundaries the Ireland price contracted, though it was only really in the last fifth of the innings that Ireland went favourites when needing just over a run a ball. There was late drama when O'Brien was run out for 113 off just 63 balls with Ireland still needing 12 at which point their price went out to [1.46]. But two late boundaries saw them over the line and short-odds on backers were left cursing their bad luck and the famous luck of the Irish who made the most of dropped catches and generally poor fielding.
England are still expected to qualify for the quarter-finals but the 1.02 on them making the next round has become [1.46] whilst Ireland are rated a [5.0] chance from 46 at the start of the game. England's performance has unsurprisingly made the layers on the winner market have a re-think and they've been eased to 14.5 to win the competition for the first time. India at [4.1] and South Africa at [5.3] head the market.
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