England v Australia ODI Series

By Bigjoe

Commences Tuesday 22nd June, 13.30 GMT

Just a few months away from the Ashes, this meeting of the old enemies will be a battle to gain the psychological edge ahead of the big event.

England already struck a blow by defeating the Aussies the final of the World Twenty20 and that triumph should give England confidence for these games in the 50 over format.

Australia though will also be confident after their emphatic 6-1 series win in this format against England last summer and by the fact that they have stormed clear at the top of the ODI rankings with a year of domination in this version of the game.

The Australian team has a new look about it. They are missing Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle and Brett Lee on the bowling front, and Brad Haddin is replaced behind the stumps by Tim Paine. The bowling attack will be led by Doug Bollinger, Ryan Harris and Clint McKay.

Whilst the bowling might not be as strong as in previous years, the Aussie batting lineup remains formidable. Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke and Mike Hussey are complimented by the in-form pair Shane Watson and Cameron White.

Some changes in the England side from their Twenty20 winning team see the return of Andrew Strauss as captain and Ian Bell in the middle order. Jimmy Anderson should also return after being left on the bench for the Twenty20 tournament.

I believe that this will be a high scoring series with both bowling attacks struggling to contain strong batting lineups. England have made great strides in all formats in the last year and will be confident of doing well in this series.

Australia though have been in irresistible form in this format home and away in last couple of years. I believe that they simply have too many batsmen capable of scoring big and that their dominance over England in last summers ODI series will be repeated again in this series and therefore my suggested bets are:

In the Series Correct score Market:

BACK Australia to win 4-1 for 4 points @ 5.5 at Sportingbet.

BACK Australia to win 5-0 for 3 points @ 13.0 Totesport, Sportingbet

Bigjoe