The ODI series between England and Australia continues on Friday when the two sides head to the capital to meet each other in game four of the five with Lord’s the venue for what could be the pivotal match.
England kept the series alive with a very strong performance in Durham on Tuesday and will be looking for the win here which will force a decider in Bristol on Sunday. Australia will be looking to sew up the series here and now.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Cricket channels with the build-up in the capital beginning at 12 noon ahead of the 12.30pm start time.
England
After heavily criticising their performances in the first two matches, a lot of credit has to go to England for their showing in the third game. Having put in a couple of abject displays in the opening two games, faced with a run chase of over 300 to keep the series alive they could easily have buckled and not given it a good go but while we will never know for sure what would have happened had the rain not arrived when it did, England were in complete control when it did come along so I think they would have got home.
They now need to back that up in this match and if they can do that they will head to Bristol potentially as favourites for the decider. The key thing for England was although they conceded 300 in Durham, they kind of restricted Australia until the last few overs when things threatened to get away from them. They need to bowl better at the end of the innings but they have improved with the ball the longer the series has gone on so that might happen here.
Australia
There is no doubt that Australia will have been disappointed with how they went in Durham. They were shackled a lot more than in the first two games and while they were able to break free later in the innings that wasn’t really the sort of cricket that they want to play. In an ideal world they could look to come out fighting in this match and put that right but whether conditions will allow them to do that remains to be seen. If it doesn’t they’ll need to dig in.
Australia need to be much better with the ball in this match and I expect them to be that. Conditions will probably ensure they are but they will know that they weren’t good enough in the previous game. We might get to see the marquee players in this Australian batting unit come to the fore here because in tough batting conditions this is going to be a test of technique and a couple of the Australian middle order have that more than covered.
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Team News
There are reports suggesting that Jofra Archer will play successive games here which is a positive for England. Reece Topley has left the camp because of illness so unless anyone else has picked up an injury England could be unchanged.
Australia left Travis Head and Adam Zampa out of their side for the previous game but they are expected to come straight back into the team for this one potentially at the expense of Cameron Green and Sean Abbott.
Betting
I took the under on the run line in the previous match between these two and I’ll readily accept that I got lucky that the rain came when it did to earn me a push but there the ground was previously a high scoring one and was again. Lord’s is not usually a high scoring ground when it comes to one day cricket and the amount of rain that has been around in the capital in the lead up to this match is certainly not going to have allowed the groundsman to prepare a batting paradise.
The drainage system at Lord’s is very good so the longer the day goes on the more it will dry up a bit but there has to be moisture in both the surface and the outfield when this match gets underway purely because of the volume of rain that has been in London. The match run for this match is 571.5 runs which is bordering on the high side for this ground anyway but throw in the excessive rain in the lead up to the game offering a potential slow wicket and I think the under is the way to go.
Tips
Back Under 571.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.85 with Betway
