Australia v New Zealand ODI Series......Down But Not Out

Starts Sunday 1st Feb, Perth 04.430 GMT.

Weather

South Africa completed a stunning 4-1 series triumph over the Aussies on Friday. If losing to, in effect, the Saffers 2nd string attack was not insult enough, the Aussies also found salt in their wound by losing the No1 ODI ranking spot to their summer conquerors.

The good news for the Aussies however is that in these days of wall to wall cricket, possible redemption is not far around the corner. In this case, they have the opportunity to pick themselves up off the canvas, dust themselves down and start the fight back within 48 hours of their humbling defeat. Yes, they could get their No1 ranking back by the end of this weekend!

Sunday sees the Kiwi's come to town for the start of the 2nd of this Aussie summer's CB five match CB series. Australia will be keen on a winning start to start the healing process after their recent mauling. The Kiwi's will be just as keen to try and take advantage of the Aussies woes and lack of confidence and will feel this is the perfect time for them to inflict further embarrassment on their hosts.

So will the Kiwi's prevail?  Will we see that further demise of the Aussies?

Not on your Ned Kelly I say!

Though the Kiwi's are a fruity price to win, I am not tempted. Though the Aussies are a skinny price to win, I am not deterred.

There is a new world order developing in the Cricket. Australia's dominance days are over. South Africa and India look likely to overtake them in both formats in the very near future. However, it’s one thing facing the Saffers and Indians and another facing the Kiwis and other lower ranked teams.

I believe , despite their obvious decline, Australia remain a class above the Kiwis in all formats and I am confident that this series will confirm that gap in class as the Aussies romp to a comfortable series win.

The main reason for Australia's recent slump has been that their bowling has been totally overshadowed by the bowling attacks of South Africa and India. Their batting remains strong and they consistently got off to good starts only to throw away those starts in the face of quality bowling in the middle overs.

Whilst their bowling remains their weakness for this series against the Kiwis, it will not be overshadowed by the Kiwi attack which, with the exception of Vettori, lacks the depth and class that is likely to restrict the Aussies.

The Kiwi batting has some obvious potential in McCullum, Taylor and Ryder, however their middle and late order is vulnerable and they will be relying too much on the top order to deliver.

I believe this series will be dominated by the Aussie batting, I believe they will just score too many runs too quickly for the Kiwi's to have much chance.

So what’s the bet?

Aussies are around 1.25 to win the series and around 1.35 for Sunday’s game. Whilst I have little doubt that they will justify those short odds, I am not backer of any team at these odds in this format which often sees much better value in running rather than prematch.

However, I am very interested in the "Series Correct Score Market".

I will be extremely surprised if the Kiwis win more than one game in this series. I will not be surprised to see the Aussies win all five games, weather permitting.

Therefore my suggested bets for this series are:

In the Series Correct Score Market:

BACK Australia to win 5-0 for 2 points @ 6.0 at Ladbrokes.

BACK Australia to win 4-1 for 3 points @ 3.0 at Ladbrokes.

Join me in watching the Aussie’s prove that though they may be down, they are very far from being out.

Bigjoe