West Indies V England 3rd Test Betting

After the farcical scenes at the Sir Viv Richards Stadium in Antigua on Friday morning ICC match referee Alan Hurst 24 hours later gave the go ahead for a so-called 3rd Test to take place at The Antigua Recreation Ground. The old Rec - as it is also known - resembled a building site all day Saturday as an army of workers and TV crews worked flat out to be ready in time for Sunday morning.

One man whom it seems won't be complaining is Steve Harmison. If what Strauss has indicated is to be believed the Durham man looks set to be given his place back in a horses-for-courses selection change with Jimmy Anderson. When practising on the ground the nets to Harmisons good fortune were placed on the same square where the Test is going to take place and the square in question responded well to pace and bounce all meaning that the unlucky James Anderson now looks likely to miss out again.

West Indies look like sticking with the same eleven named on Friday although captain Chris Gayle might want to rethink his strategy this time if he wins the toss again. The abandonment of Fridays Test may well have saved him from having to explain his decision to put England in to bat had they gone on to get a good score on a pitch that looked good to bat on.




Probable Teams

West Indies - Gayle(C), Devon Smith, Sarwan, Chanderpaul, Nash, Hinds, Ramdin(WK), Taylor, Powell, Benn, Edwards.

England - Strauss(C), Cook, Shah, Pietersen, Collingwood, Flintoff, Prior(WK), Broad, Sidebottom, Harmison, Panesar.


3rd Test Odds

West Indies are a best priced 2/1 with Boylesports
England are 8/5 with Totesport
Draw is 9/4 with Stan James

There are free bets available with all the bookmakers listed on this page to customers opening new accounts.