It is do or die for England on Tuesday as they bid to keep their ODI series against Australia alive when the sides meet in match three of five at Old Trafford.
Australia took a dominant 2-0 lead in the series when they won a controversial second ODI at Lord’s on Saturday and they head to Manchester knowing that if they win they will seal the series with two matches to spare.
England have been found wanting with the bat in the first two games in the series so they will be focusing their attention on making sure they improve in that area of the game. There is always room for improvement with the ball but save for the last few overs they’ve bowled well in both matches.
Australia are going along nicely. We didn’t see them at their best in the first game of the series but we certainly saw more of their best cricket at Lord’s on Saturday and they’ll be looking to improve again and get the series won.
England have decided to rest Jos Buttler for the rest of the series. Jonny Bairstow will replace him for the last three games and that will improve England’s batting given the poor form Buttler has shown so far. David Willey will be pushing for a game as will Sam Billings.
Australia haven’t escaped changes to their squad for this match either. Dave Warner’s thumb went at Lord’s and since then it has been revealed that Shane Watson and Nathan Coulter-Nile have gone lame. Aaron Finch, Peter Handscomb and John Hastings have been called into their squad as their replacements.
Old Trafford will be staging two of the last three matches in this series. This match will be the 43rd ODI to be held here. England have a good record on this ground. They have won 22 and lost just 11 here. Australia have a winning record too with six wins and five losses from 11 outings.
The wicket at Old Trafford is probably the fastest in the country right now so that will please Australia but it will turn at this time of the year too which might not. The batsmen should enjoy the pace on the ball so I’m expecting another high scoring match.
With so many changes to the two sides likely picking the winner of the match is a tricky task. There is no doubting that Australia have been the better side in the series so far but England won’t lack for motivation here after the incident involving Ben Stokes on Saturday so this one could go either way.
I like two bets in this match. The first of them is over 56.5 boundaries. England’s batting hasn’t really shown up in the series but it simply has to here else the series will be gone. Even though England’s batting is yet to show up in this series this line has been brought in on both occasions and we’ve not yet had what you would call a really high scoring match by today’s standards. This wicket will provide pace so I expect a lot of boundaries off the back of that.
The other bet I like is one which came in for me on Saturday and that is Mitch Marsh’s performance. Amazingly considering he belted 64 in no time at Lord’s his line hasn’t moved from 38. That was the second time in the series he has covered his total with the bat but he can bowl as well as we’ve seen so that line continues to look far too low to me.
Back Over 56.5 boundaries for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with William Hill
Back M.Marsh’s Performance – 38pts or more for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Blog cricket YTD: +22.59pts
