England v Australia Ashes Series

England have retained the Ashes in spectacular fashion by beating Australia 3 tests to 1.
Here are the final totals -which should be of great interest to serious spread bettors...

Spread Watch -Series Totals & Specials Markets After The 5th Test
This Ashes series provided us with over one hundred different markets from which to choose, so here are the top 5 markets that we all wish we were on before the series began:

1) England Ton-Ups (165-180 Sporting Index) Result = 545
Thanks to some fantastic batting from Cook, Trott and Prior, the England Ton-Up total reached an amazing 545! This meant a 365 point profit to buyers of this spread -well done if you were on this.

2) Total Ton-ups (360-380 Sporting Index) Result = 692
Mainly the result of England scoring so heavily, but nevertheless a great buy with a 310 point profit.

3) Series Wides (32-35 Spreadex) Result = 55
The first two tests yielded a fantastic 35 wides, so anything after that was profit for buyers of a spread that was never going to finish below 25 -so fairly safe for buyers. There were several occasions of 'four wides' when the bouncers got out of hand. Well worth considering for the next series.

4) Extras Total (380-400 Sporting Index) Result = 268
This is a spread that we tipped a couple of times -even when it was dropping like a stone. Even though there were quite a few wides, the instances of boundary byes and leg byes were scarce. Add this to the three matches won by an innings and straight away that reduces the total by fifty points.

5) Boundary Sixes (28-30 Spreadex) Result = 21
Not one we would have picked, especially with Pietersen in the team! We put the lack of sixes down to the three matches where there were only three innings and also the size of the Australian grounds, which also host Aussie Rules Football -making it difficult to breach the boundary on the fly.

Spread Watch -Player Runs Totals After The 5th Test
The standout buy of the series was Cook (766 Runs Scored) who could have been bought at 323 with Extrabet. For Australia, the leading batsman was Mike Hussey (570) finished 235 above the initial Extrabet market quote.

On the selling side Aussie captain Ricky Ponting (198 Runs Scored) had a dreadful series, ending it 200 below his 398 quote from Spreadex. Yet another good 'sell' on the Australian side was new skipper Michael Clarke (193 Runs Scored) -who got in several times, but never really made a big score.