England drew first blood in a much tighter opening ODI than expected at The Oval on Wednesday evening and so Australia will be looking to reply at the first time of asking when the two teams meet in the second match of the series in Cardiff on Saturday.
That first game was a nervy affair and it will be interesting to see if either team can relax and let their natural game come to the fore or whether that battle in London set the scene for what is to come for the remainder of proceedings.
England
I guess having warmed up for the series with a defeat to Scotland, England would have taken any sort of victory in the first game but I’m not sure they would have been completely happy with the one that came their way. At half way I’m sure they would have been delighted with their efforts but a poor batting performance will have taken the gloss off the victory.
In saying that, it will certainly have done England no harm to win a match when they were not in fifth gear with the pedal firmly to the metal. They won’t want to win that way too often but considering they were missing two star men I think their overall emotion will be contentment with acknowledgement that there is room for improvement.
Australia
Although they lost I’m sure somewhere there is a relief that Australia are now able to concentrate on the cricket. They would have been trying to do that anyway but subconsciously they won’t have known what to expect after the disaster of the winter. They have taken all of that on the chin and can put it behind them now though.
Now that they are concentrating on the cricket they need to do something about their batting. Rarely did it fire against England in Australia in the winter and it certainly never got going at The Oval either. They will take great heart from the way that they bowled in defence of a nothing total but the longer they go without getting a score the bigger a burden it will become.
Team News
England are expected to go into this match unchanged from the first game with Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes still sidelined through injury. Sam Billings and Jake Ball have joined the squad once again after playing in the Royal London quarter finals.
Australia may be tempted to bring D’Arcy Short into their line up and give Travis Head, Marcus Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell more work with the ball to given their batting a little more depth. Kane Richardson could be the man to make way.
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Betting
Going into this series I thought it would be a high scoring one but I’m not rethinking that idea after what we saw in the first game. Even if Australia lengthen their batting I’m not sure it will help them play spin any better. They were pathetic at it in the first match on a pretty decent pitch. Cardiff usually offers a little for the spinner so Australia may well struggle. On the flip side they bowled pretty well and showed they have the potential to keep things tight so under 545.5 runs looks a good thing here. Of the 23 previous matches here only three have had more runs than that. This doesn’t feel like it will be a fourth.
Given how badly Australia played spin in the previous match I think the 3/1 on Adil Rashid being the top England bowler is worth taking here. He picked up two wickets at The Oval and has five wickets from three ODIs on this ground. We’ve had a spate of decent weather recently so I’m expecting the wicket to be a little dry here which should play into his hands nicely. He looks a fair bet to me.
Tips
Back Under 545.5 runs for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back A.Rashid – Top England Bowler for a 2/10 stake at 4.00 with Ladbrokes
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