After three entertaining and very competitive T20 matches, England and Australia turn their attention to the 50 over game on Friday for the first of three ODIs from Old Trafford in Manchester, as these two meet in this format for the first time since the World Cup semi-final last year.
Given that this is just a three match series which is all done and dusted in less than a week, the winner of this first game knows that they will be in control of their own destiny and needing just one more win from the final two games to win the series.
England
England have been good in limited overs cricket this summer but we shouldn’t forget that they were beaten by Ireland in their previous ODI. The caveat to that defeat of course was that they were without their Test players for that series whereas a clash with the old enemy has meant the big guns have come out to play. England are the world champions in this format and they’ll be eager to remind the world of that fact with a big performance here.
We know the way England like to play in this format of the game. They’ll go after the bowling with gay abandon and then they’ll look to restrict the opponents as much as possible when they have the ball in their hands. This Old Trafford deck should allow them to play the way they like to so it will be interesting to see if the home side are good enough to impose themselves on what is a pretty decent bowling attack. If they can it is the key to opening up the match.
Australia
Australia used to be the top dogs in this format of the game but they have kind of lost their way since they won the World Cup in 2015 and this offers them a chance to get back on track. The main reason for their struggles is a lack of batsmen who pile on the runs. Outside of their top three their batsmen offer up a lot of bits and pieces stuff rather than those substantial big innings on a regular occasion that continually gets them up to big totals.
If they had a terrible bowling attack that needed a mountain of runs to defend then you could understand their issues with the bat, but that isn’t the case so they just need to find a better balance to their order, or better players within it. If they can do that then we know they have the bowling attack to cause plenty of problems so you get the feeling their success or failure in this series will be determined by how they bat.
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Team News
England have their big guns back for this series. Jason Roy is fit again to open the batting while the likes of Jos Buttler, Chris Woakes, Jofra Archer and Mark Wood will all play their first home ODI since the World Cup final. Moeen Ali is expected to play.
Australia are expected to bring Ashes run machine Marnus Labaschagne back into their ranks for this match while Alex Carey is likely to keep wicket despite not playing in the final T20 on Tuesday. Mitchell Marsh is also fancied to play.
Betting
We saw in the recent T20s against Pakistan on this ground that the wickets are very good and this is a high scoring ground. I don’t really see much changing in this opening game of the series so it is over 56.5 boundaries which takes my fancy here. We don’t need to predict how England are going to play in this match. They are going to take their game to the bowling and with Chris Woakes back in the side at eight they have the batting depth to do it as well.
This might be down to Australia and how they bat but they are clearly aware of their issues with the willow because they are set to play the better batsman at number five in Mitchell Marsh rather than Glenn Maxwell who deals more in cameos than proper innings. Everything is set up for boundaries here. The pitch will offer pace and bounce, the outfield will be fast and the weather is set fair. I’m happy to take the over here.
Tips
Back Over 56.5 boundaries for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with William Hill
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