Match Betting
India are favourites at 8/11 with VC Bet, Totesport, Sky Bet and Paddy Power
Australia are 13/10 with Blue Square and 888Sport
A Tied Match is
A remarkable turnaround in the betting for this 2nd One Day International, Australia were rightly the favourites going into the first game and going with form they won it, taking all this into consideration Australia will surely be favourites for the second game. Wrong!
At 8/11, India remarkably are favourites for the second of this seven match series. I can only assume this is due to the fact that Yuvraj is expected to return for the Indians and that Brett Lee and James Hopes are out for Australia and Mitchell Johnson is struggling with the ankle he turned in the first game but is likely to play – you would have to imagine that was Lee fit to play then Johnson surely wouldn’t be risked.
It became apparent during the first game that Brett Lee had a problem due to him not bowling his full quota of overs. A further worry for Ricky Ponting would be the way in which Shane Wastson’s bowling was taken appart at the business end of India’s run chase, he just seemed to fall to pieces.
Peter Siddle was quite expensive as well, but at least when it mattered most he bowled an excellent final over to close the game out for Australia after India had got within reach of completing a remarkable comeback. Some good news for Ricky Ponting was a return to form for Mike Hussey who scored 73 off 91 balls while steering Australia to a decent total.
If as expected Yuvraj returns for India, MS Dhoni will have the added comfort of knowing the fielding side of things should improve. For all the chopping and changing with the fielding coach prior to this series it didn’t seem to have had any impact on the evidence of the first match.
Praveen Kumar was very expensive in the bowling department going for a wicketless 77 off his 10 overs, but on a positive note Ishant Sharma showed signs of improvement with an impressive 3 for 50 and Ravindra Jadeja continued to impress with the ball but failed with the bat.
Possible Teams
India – Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (C & WK), Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra
Australia – Shane Watson, Tim Paine (WK), Ricky Ponting (C), Shaun Marsh, Michael Hussey, Adam Voges, Cameron White, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Hauritz, Doug Bollinger, Peter Siddle.