Asia Cup: India are punters’ favourites in Pakistan tie

New Delhi, Feb 27 (IANS) India were the bookies' favourites ahead of their high-voltage Asia Cup clash against arch-rivals Pakistan on Saturday evening.

The rate for an Indian win was fixed at Rs. 1.66 per rupee by bookies in the capital. This means that someone betting on an Indian victory will make a profit of 66 paise for every rupee he puts at stake.

A Pakistan win, on the hand, will fetch 58 paise per rupee.

Punters in Mumbai also rooted for an Indian win, backing the side to register an overwhelming triumph ovver their arch-rivals.

As per latest trends, the winning rate for India stood at between 67-65 paise, while Pakistan trailed way behind at double, between 130-135 paise, in the much-awaited match at the Sher-E-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka.

Even as police kept a watchful eye, online bets in Mumbai are beleived to have piled up to a staggering Rs.3,000 crore for the first India-Pakistan cricket battle in two years, with bookies operating from remote locations aided only by mobiles and laptops.

In Ranchi, the hometown of India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, it was 50 paise for India and Re.1 for Pakistan.

Popular betting website Betfair also put India in the favourites seat. The site offered 62 paise per rupee on an Indian win while a Pakistan victory will fetch Rs.2.48 per rupee.

According to Betfair, Virat Kohli was favoured to be the top scoring Indian batsman ahead of star opener Rohit Sharma and the in-form Ajinkya Rahane. Dhoni, noted for his ability to get the team out of tight situations, was in the sixth position.

Mohammad Hafeez, Sarfraz Ahmed and Shoaib Malik were jointly tipped to be the best performers among the Pakistan batsmen.

India were also expected to hit the most number of sixes.

The Asia Cup is being held at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur, Bangladesh. The tournament is being held in the Twenty20 format for the first time in order to give participating teams much needed practice in the shortest format of the game ahead of next month's World T20 in India.