England conclude their Test match summer over the next five days when they and Pakistan battle it out for the third and final time in the series. These are different times but when we’ve been on the field the quality of cricket has been very high. Hopefully that remains the case here.
The second Test turned into an absolute farce with a mixture of rain and then a reluctance to play in poor light and the end result of that is that England now know they can’t lose the series and only need a draw here to win it. Pakistan must win this game to remain unbeaten in series against England since 2010.
England
It wouldn’t have been the way England would have wanted to secure a share of the series, especially as they had a few questions to answer after the first Test despite the wonderful run chase which got them over the line. It looked like they were on their way to answering one of them, in that could they contain the Pakistan batsmen and restrict them to a poor score but we never really got a chance to see if they could offer up sufficient runs from their own top order.
That will be the centre of attention in this match. England are missing their best batsman right now so do they have a contingency plan in his absence that allows them to make the sort of first innings score which can dominate a match. If they can then you would expect them to go on and win this match but if not the loss of Stokes will be really felt and England will end up with a real battle on their hands.
Pakistan
It must have been a real frustration for Pakistan that such little cricket was possible in the previous match because they worked hard to get themselves a half-decent score and with the quality of their bowling attack they would have felt right in the battle. What Pakistan must do going into this game is that they keep their intensity high and intent to win strong. It is easy when the chance of winning a series has gone to feel sorry for themselves and not give a good performance.
For the most part in this series Pakistan have been the better side but that will count for nothing if they can’t get over the line here In order to give themselves the best chance of doing that they will need sufficient first innings runs. They have managed to eke them out and if they do that again here they will be in business because their bowling attack is very much legitimate. We might know Pakistan’s fate early based on their intensity at the start.
Special Offer
SIGN UP TO MR PLAY AND BET £10 TO GET A FREE £10 BET TO ENJOY TEST CRICKET WITH! CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO OPEN AN ACCOUNT. 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Team News
England are expected to bring Jofra Archer back into their ranks to give their bowling attack something different in the absence of Ben Stokes. Sam Curran or Dom Bess would be most likely to miss out.
Pakistan are mulling over one change which would see them going back to the starting XI that should have won the opening Test, bringing Shadab Khan back in for Fawad Alam who looked very ungainly on his return to Test cricket.
Betting
I’ll finish the series off with just the one bet. I was hoping to be able to go a lot stronger in it but it has been so stop-start and key players have been missing that it just isn’t going to be the case sadly. We picked a winner in the first match and had our bet on the second Test voided so we are in a good position going into the last game in terms of the match betting. I’ll close the series out with a bet on the performance of Stuart Broad.
The line for this match is 108.5 which when you consider that in the first match of the series he took six wickets and walloped 36 runs in the game, and then in the second match in just one innings with the ball he took four wickets so was well on his way to another high total, that line doesn’t look nearly enough. Broad has been the bowler of the summer so far and he should enjoy the conditions he gets at the Ageas Bowl here. However he gets up to 109pts, be it the ball, bat or some bonus points in the field, I like the over here.
Tips
Back S.Broad’s Performance – Over 108.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Betfair
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2020
