England have already won the T20 series in Australia but the two nations get the chance to put the finishing touches to their T20 World Cup preparations on Friday when they meet in the third and final game in Canberra.
England have won the first two T20s but Australia will feel they should have won them both and certainly had the opportunity to do so. They will be out for some confidence to take into their world title defence while England will look to keep their foot on the throats.
Australia
A month or so ago Australia looked like the standout side as they bid to retain their T20 World Cup crown but since then their batting has floundered a little and all of a sudden a match out from starting their title defence they have one or two issues to resolve and a couple of players who they seriously need to get back into form. They have a couple of warm-up matches next week but they are never taken that seriously so this is the last real chance for that.
Australia will probably be hurting from not winning the second game more than the first one because that defeat was largely their own doing. Their fielding was sloppy and one or two of the dismissals in a run chase which they had under control were not good. You hope from their point of view that they have just got sloppy waiting for the tournament to come around and when it begins their high standards will return.
England
If you think back to the English summer where England lost home T20 series to South Africa and India, it looked like this tournament would come too soon for Jos Buttler and his men. The last few weeks have given them the opportunity to answer the questions they were posed in those series and all of a sudden they will feel like they are ready to make up for failing to win this title when they were the favourites to do so a year ago.
The first two matches in this series have been perfect for England. They have been tested in both games and held their nerve in the back end of both of them. They won’t need telling that death bowling arguably cost them the last two T20 World Cup titles so the fact they have defended a couple of scores with a fair bit of confidence will help them. They still have some players to get back into form after spells out of the game but in the main England are moving in the right direction.
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Team News
Given that Glenn Maxwell is so important to Australia he is likely to get another chance to find some form. Josh Inglis and Steve Smith haven’t featured in the series but the big question is where they can get into the side.
England are likely to make changes to their bowling with this being another chance for Mark Wood to come back into the mix. Chris Jordan wasn’t at his best on his return from injury but could get another chance to find his form.
Betting
This isn’t an easy match to bet on or predict the events and how they might happen because with nothing on it in terms of a series we could see a lot of differences from the opening two matches. Players who haven’t had much time in the middle might get shifted up the order to try and give them that while those who haven’t featured as much as they would have wanted to or expected to in this series might get the chance to shine.
One man who might be more involved with the bat for England is Sam Curran. He has faced 11 balls in the series so far so he could be moved up possibly as high as three to get him some time in the middle. We know he is a quality batter when given the chance. What he has shown us is that he’s a very good white ball bowler these days as well. He has five wickets in the two matches in this series and took seven in the six matches he played in Pakistan. We also saw in the previous game that he is an excellent fielder as well so with three genuine scoring methods in this match I expect him to cover a performance line of 26.5 for the third time in the series.
Tips
Back S.Curran’s Performance – Over 26.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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