Bangladesh v England ODI Series..How low can you go?

By Bigjoe

Commences February 28th, 08.00 GMT

How low can you go in regard to results in International cricket?

With all due respect to the minnows, failure to beat them has to be a low for any top 8 side. There have been some famous upsets caused by Bangladesh but these have been few and far between. On the whole they have not made any significant progress in any format over the last decade and England will feel confident that they should comfortably win this series.

Sun Feb 28 08:00 GMT	1st ODI - Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur
Tue Mar 2 08:00 GMT	2nd ODI - Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur
Fri Mar 5 03:00 GMT	3rd ODI - Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chittagong

There have been encouraging signs lately though that Bangladesh are capable of turning things around. They put in spirited performances in defeats at home to India and away to New Zealand in their most recent games. The general pattern has seen them lose early wickets, but the likes of the

Needs to recapture his form Mohammad Ashraful

captain, Shakib Al Hassan, Rahim and Mahmudullah have staged fightbacks in the middle and late order.

The biggest disappointment for Bangladesh has been the continuing lack of form of their former skipper and potentially world class batsman, Mohammed Ashraful. If Ashraful can get his form back then I believe things will get a lot brighter for Bangladesh. They already have an aggressive opener in Tamim Iqbal and if they can get off to decent starts, then that strong middle and late order would be in a position to build on that rather then staging recoveries.

How low can you go in regards to pitches?

Not much lower and slower then the ones that are likely in this series. Bangladesh may be outclassed by England; however these slow low pitches will go a long way in levelling things up.

England have improved markedly in the last year. They regained the ashes against Australia and held South Africa to a drawn series away. But prior to these successes England struggled away from home and lost series in West Indies and on the sub continent against India and Sri Lanka. The biggest reason for those losses were the slowness and lowness of the pitches. They offered no swing or bounce for the predominantly seam attack of England.

The England Batsmen are used to the ball coming onto the bat and they have struggled to come to term with these slower pitches, especially against top class spin.

The pitches for this series will be similar to those and again the England seamers could struggle. Add in the likelihood that they will also offer spin for the Bangladeshi spinners and we get a possible scenario for some upsets in this series.

How low can you go in regards to prices?

You cannot get much lower then the sub 1.2 generally available on England to win the series. England obviously should be favourites, but for the reasons outlined I feel this price is way too low, especially in just a three game series and especially in this part of the world where there is always the chance of a washed out game. England have shown a tendency to struggle on sub continent pitches and  I believe, for minimal stakes, its well worth opposing them in this series and therefore my suggested bets are:

In the Series Outright Market:

LAY England for 2 points liability @ 1.2 on Betfair

In the Series Correct Score Market:

BACK Bangladesh to win 2-1 for 1 point @ 7.0 at Ladbrokes sportsbook .

BACK Bangladesh to win 3-0 for 1 point @ 34.0 at Totesport, Sportingbet , Bluesq , 888sport.

Join me as I believe this will be a case of how low can you go for England.

Bigjoe