This week, we’re going through the nuts and bolts of an enticing tie between Judd Trump and Ding Junhui at the Snooker Masters, a London derby between Chelsea and Arsenal in the semi-finals of the EFL Cup, and the second match of an intriguing cricket ODI Series between India and New Zealand.
Judd Trump - Ding Junhui
- Start: Wednesday, 14 January 14 at 13:15
- Venue: Alexandra Palace
- Coverage: BBC, Eurosport
- Fun fact: As we’ll see in a second, 2025 was the first time since 2013 that Judd Trump didn’t win a tournament during a calendar year. So somewhat disappointing stuff for a man ranked 1 in the world with 30 ranking tournaments, nine maximum breaks and 1122 century breaks to his name.
Betting
Sad news for fans of Ronnie ‘The Rocket’ O’Sullivan - he’s withdrawn for medical reasons for the second year running - and has been replaced by Scottish Open Champion Chris Wakelin, who will now face Neil Robertson.
But on the same day, we can look forward to a good clash between tournament favourite Judd Trump and the most successful Asian snooker player of all time, Ding Junhui. He’s a three-time winner of the UK Championship and also a winner of this very tournament back in 2011.
Unsurprisingly, Trump is the 1.33 favourite with Ladbrokes; Junhui is 3.3.
Trump is 9-5 against Junjui over the years. More significantly, Trump is currently ranked as the World Number 1, while Ding is ranked 12th.
But Trump has got to Number 1 based on consistency rather than tournament wins because, despite winning a record amount of prize money last season, he didn’t win any tournaments, though he did finish as runner-up in three, including the UK Championship. Then again, Ding didn’t win any, either.
In addition to being a great match between two players with serious pedigree, it’s also a contrast in styles between the uber-attacking and imaginative Trump and the more conservative and strategic Junhui.
Ladbrokes make it 2.2 that Ding wins the first frame, 1.5 that there will be over 1.5 centuries in the match (Best-of-11) and 4.8 that Ding will be leading after the first two frames, which would of course mean being 2-0 up going into the third.
Prices that catch the eye on the correct score market are the 6.0 that Trump wins the match in a decider (score of 6-5), the 5.0 that Trump wins relatively comfortably by 6-3 and the 8.5 that it’s the Chinese player eventually triumphing 6-5 in the decider.
Chelsea - Arsenal in EFL Cup Semi-Final
- Start: 14 January at 20:00
- Venue: Stamford Bridge, London
- Coverage: Sky Sports Main Event
- Fun Fact: Whereas Arsenal are the FA Cup kings with 14 wins, more than anyone else, they haven’t fared so well in the EFL Cup with just two wins in this one: 1987 and 1993. Chelsea, on the other hand, have been pretty consistent in both: eight FA Cup wins (joint-third) and five EFL Cup ones (putting them in fourth position), the last of which was in 2015.
Betting
Unibet makes Chelsea 3.05 to win this match, with Arsenal 2.3, and the draw is priced at 3.4.
This is only the first leg of the EFL Cup semi-final, so we’re not going to find the winner of this tie on the night. The winner of this semi-final will go on to face the winner of Newcastle United v Manchester City, with the first leg of that being played on Tuesday, 13 January.
Unibet makes Manchester City and Arsenal the joint-favourites at 2.55 to lift the trophy at Wembley in late March. Chelsea are 5.5 to win it, with Newcastle the outsiders of the four at 7.5.
This will be the second match for Chelsea under new manager Liam Rosenior, after he guided Chelsea to a 5-1 win over Charlton in the FA Cup. Beating Arsenal here, or better still, going all the way in the competition, would certainly endear him to Chelsea fans pretty quickly.
The last two times these sides met at Stamford Bridge- both in the Premier League – resulted in 1-1 draws, and a repeat of that scoreline will pay out at 6.5. A 1-0 win to Chelsea to help boost spirits at Stamford Bridge is 9.5, while a win for Arsenal by the same scoreline is available at 8.0.
In other markets, it’s 1.65 that both teams score in the match, 4.0 that Arsenal win to nil and 2.7 that the second half has more goals in it than the first.
India - New Zealand
- Start: 14 January
- Venue: Stamford Bridge, London
- Coverage: Sky Sports Main Event
- Fun fact: Rohit Sharma, a former India ODI captain, holds the record for the most sixes hit ever in the format with 352, recently overtaking the 351 of Shahid Afridi.
Betting
This is the Second ODI of a three-match Series after India won the first one on Sunday morning, their star players like Virat Kohli, KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer having to make use of all their experience to get India home in a steep chase of exactly 300.
That result, India’s position in the ODI rankings (India are top though New Zealand are right behind them in second) and home advantage are other reasons why India are just 1.14 with Betfred to make it 2-0, and wrap up the Series. New Zealand looks like a pretty reasonable price here at 5.5, given the first match almost went the distance.
In other markets, there’s only one place to start and it’s with that man Kohli. The 37-year-old, who only plays ODI cricket and the Indian Premier League after a remarkable international career, doesn’t play much these days. But it really doesn’t seem to matter because he’s as fit as ever and never seems to lose his form with the bat.
Cue the brilliant match-winning 93 on Sunday that was so important in getting India home, earning him yet another Player of the Match award. Here are his seven most recent scores. Including the one on Sunday: 77, 131, 65, 102, 135, 74. Those are elite numbers, so it’s no wonder that he’s the 3.2 favourite to be top scorer for India again on Wednesday.
But you can never discount Rohit Sharma, who, like Kohli, is a former India skipper in all formats. He didn’t get going on Sunday, contributing just 26, but he could go big here and is 4.3, somewhat surprisingly a higher price than current skipper Shubman Gill, who is 3.8.
But Kohli wasn’t the only one to play a fine hand with the bat in the first game. New Zealand’s Daryl Mitchell scored a superb 84 of his own in the first innings and has an outstanding record against India, which not many can boast about. Mitchell is 3.75 to make it back-to-back top batsman wins with Devon Conway (3.85), Henry Nicholls (4.5) and Glenn Phillips (7.5) others to consider.
If you’d rather focus on team efforts rather than individual ones, you can get 3.0 that the match’s highest scoring batsman is from New Zealand, 1.36 that he’s Indian and 26.0 that there’s a tie between players from the two teams.
Bet of the Week: Daryl Mitchell to Score Over 32.5 Runs
The man we just mentioned, Daryl Mitchell, has one of the most impressive records out there in ODIs, despite not being a superstar of the game. He averages 53 across his 57 ODIs and, remarkably, even better against India, averaging 60.
As we saw last time, he’s in cracking form yet again, so the 1.83 that he scores over 32.5 looks a good bet.
