2.30pm, Trent Bridge – Tuesday, September 15, 2009 (D/N)
Match Betting
Australia are favourites again at a best price of 11/20 with Sportingbet. They can be backed at 1/2 with Ladbrokes and VC Bet
England are 13/8 with Totesport, Blue Square, Betfred and 888Sport.
A Tied Match is 59/1 and can only be backed at
With the series over now, England have only pride left to play for, also they could do with trying to ‘take some positives’ – as they like to say – from the remainder of this series going into the ICC Champions Trophy.
For Australia they will be hoping to do what the Australians of recent years do best. They currently have their collective feet well and truely pressed down on the English throats and will be looking to press down harder and finish them off, hopefully from an Australian point of view with a 7-0 whitewash.
As much as England deserve most of their criticism throughout this series you have to give Brett Lee credit for his remarkable bowling display in the 4th ODI at Lord’s. It’s easy to beat Englands batting with a big stick for collapsing but the truth is Lee bowled well and most sides would probably have crumbled under an examination of that class. You have to wonder what the outcome of the Ashes might have been had he not got injured when he did.
The real damage to England in this series was done in the first 2 games when the English batsmen failed miserably to chase down two modest targets with poor shot selections from players with failed temperaments and the occasional abysmal runout.
At the start of the summer Andrew Strauss stated that he wanted England’s players to show more responsibility for their actions, to stand up and be counted, basically to stop relying on Pietersen and Flintoff. It could and probably will be argued that in winning the Ashes this happened, but in reality quite a few failed during the Ashes and no one has shown any responsibility (except obviously Strauss) duirng this ODI series.
It I where an Australian – which I’m not – I wouldn’t be getting too carried away with the result of this series. Ok, on a positive note Brett Lee looks back to his best and Cameron White has come of age and could be the replacement for Andrew Symonds. Callum Ferguson and Tim Paine have also shown they have good potential. On the whole though they are only thrashing a poor outfit that looks totally lost. You can only beat whats in front off you but I wouldn’t start seeing this as the resurgence of Aussie cricket just yet.
Can only see Australia making changes if they want to give players a run out ahead of the Champions Trophy, Voges, Siddle and Hilfenhaus are yet to play in this series.
For England, well where do you start. Luke Wright is now injured after getting hit with a yorker from the bowling machine, he may well have got dropped anyway. In the bowling Graham Onions may come in to freshen things up, Graeme Swann also could return. In the batting department the options are limited, it’s just same again and hope that they can improve. Collingwood and Anderson are still rested/dropped.