India v Australia ODI Series....One Way Traffic
By Bigjoe

Commences Sunday 24th October
Sky Sports

I was on holiday in India last month and anyone that been there will tell you that driving on the roads there is something of a hair raising experience.

No such thing as a smooth ride, and no such thing as one way traffic. Your driving one way and coming towards you could be anything from rickshaws, mopeds, bicycles, cows and goats!. It more like an obstacle course then a road.

This seven match series kicks of on Sunday and, in cricketing terms, will also be played on roads. Pitches that will be flat, batting paradises. These roads will not be obstacle courses, these roads will not provide hair raising experiences, unless you’re a pace bowler. I believe that on these roads, we will get one way traffic in this series, a one way traffic to a comfortable Indian Series win.

Date and Time	Match
Sun Oct 25 03:30 GMT	1st ODI - India v Australia Reliance Stadium, Vadodara
Wed Oct 28 09:00 GMT	2nd ODI - India v Australia Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Jamtha, Nagpur
Sat Oct 31 09:00 GMT	3rd ODI - India v Australia Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
Mon Nov 2 09:00 GMT	4th ODI - India v Australia Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh
Thu Nov 5 09:00 GMT	5th ODI - India v Australia Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad
Sun Nov 8 03:30 GMT	6th ODI - India v Australia Nehru Stadium, Guwahati
Wed Nov 11 09:00GMT	7th ODI - India v Australia Dr DY Patil Sports Academy, Mumbai

The last couple of months has not been the best for Indian Cricket. They were eliminated in the early stages of the both the Twenty20 world cup and ICC champions trophy tournaments and only this week the three IPL sides failed to even make the Semi Finals of the inaugural Twenty20 Champions league.

Australia, on the other hand, have has an impressive period. They won the ICC trophy and both their domestic sides performed well in the Champions league. So, on the face of it, my suggestion that India will dominate this ODI series may seem a tad optimistic.

But as always there is a method to my madness and here are the reasons why I believe this will a series dominated by India.

Apart from the obvious setback in the ICC champion’s trophy, India have been in invincible form in the 50 over format in last couple of years. They remain undefeated in all series since their 2-4 home reversal against Australia in October 2007.

A lot has changed since that home defeat to Australia. Most notably Australia have lost the services of Hayden, Gilchrist and Symonds. Furthermore, Michael Clarke is struggling to make this series with injury. Ponting is still around and in great nick, but with Mr Cricket, Mike Hussey, also suffering a dip in form lately, this Aussie batting lineup is not as strong as it was two years ago.

India have risen in the ODI rankings relentlessly in last few years and they hit top spot, albeit briefly a few weeks ago. They obviously would have been

In top form Virender Sehwag

bitterly disappointed with their dismal display in the recent ICC Champions trophy, however there were mitigating circumstances in that three of their biggest players, Sehwag, Yuvraj and  Zaheer Khan were missing. Sehwag is now back and looked in irresistible form in the Champions League for Delhi. Though Zaheer remains out, Yuvraj should be back for the 2nd game of this series.

With Sehwag and Yuvraj back and Dhoni, Tendulkar and Raina all in great nick, this Indian batting lineup, on familiar home pitches will prove too strong for Australia in this series. Add in the fact that, apart from the 3rd game in Delhi, all the other pitches in this series will almost certainly be batting paradises, then it's easy to see why  dominant Indian performances with the bat will be the norm in this series.

India’s bowling has been a bit of a problem lately. However that’s mostly been in England and South Africa. On these home pitches, India have the spinners to embarrass the Aussie batsmen as they have done in the past. Harbjhan Singh remains the main man, but Yuvraj, Sehwag and Raina have proved themselves to be a good back up in this format of the game. On the pace front, Praveen Kumar has a very good record against the Aussies. Munaf Patel is recalled and the promising Tyagi is a newcomer into the squad.

Ok so what’s the bets?

India have the perfect balance on home tracks to win a vast majority of their home games. I believe this will be the case here and I fully expect them to win this series comfortably. Like all teams, they can have the odd bad hair days, but on these familiar pitches, I expect those bad hair days to be few and far between. I feel Australia will do extremely well to win more then two games out of the seven. I will not be surprised to see them only win one, and even the unthinkable whitewash cannot be completely ruled out.

I will be playing both the Outright Series Win market and the Series Correct Score Market and my suggested bets are as follows:

In the Series Outright Market:

BACK India to win for 5 points @ 2.1 at Totesport

In The Series Correct Score Market:

BACK India to win 5-2 for 2 points@ 5.5 at Bluesq , 888sport

BACK India to win 6-1 for 2 points @ 15.0 at Skybet

BACK India to win 7-0 for 1 point @ 34.0 at Bluesq , 888sport
, Skybet

Join me, I believe that, for a change, we will indeed witness one way traffic on the roads of India.

Bigjoe