Richard Mann previews the final instalment of the English cricket summer, as England and Australia contest their ODI series decider in Bristol on Sunday.
Bristol will try again on Sunday, as the international summer finally ends with the ODI series decider between England and Australia, starting at 11am, UK time.
When last year’s ODI between England and Ireland in Bristol was rained off 31 overs into the first innings, that fixture became the fourth consecutive men’s ODI abandoned at this venue – and all associated with the club will be desperate for better luck this time around.
However, the United Kingdom has experienced a dreadfully wet spell in the last week or so, and at the time of writing, another poor day of weather is in the offing on Sunday.
That’s a great shame, with the series decider set up beautifully, England having bounced back from two heavy defeats with impressive, dominant performances in the last two games.
The other frustrating thing about the weather is that this has often been a good ground for batting when the weather has played ball, producing the types of high-scoring, entertaining matches that would suit these two teams so well.
That ODI already referenced last year had seen England motor to 280-4 from 31 overs before the rain arrived. In this season’s T20 Blast, Sussex made 208-6 here, while on another occasion, Gloucestershire chased down 189 at a canter.
As ever at this time of year, the weather will be crucial, but for now, a couple of bets appeal in the side markets appeal.
Throughout the series, I’ve continually made the case for shorting PHIL SALT’s runs against Josh Hazlewood, and the big New South Wales paceman again dismissed his man cheaply at Lord’s on Friday.
Salt’s scores so far in the series read 17, 12, 0 and 22. That 22 at Lord’s, in truth, was a bit of a horror show with Hazlewood ghosting past Salt’s outside edge on a number of occasions before finally getting his reward.
Coral and Ladbrokes are first out of the traps with the individual player runs lines, offering 5/6 about under 24.5 on Salt’s runs. Expect others to follow on a similar line, and that looks fair enough from here.
Conversely, it’s not hard to be positive about HARRY BROOK’s form, and his 110 not out in Durham was the catalyst for England’s turnaround in the series.
39 at Trent Bridge and then a fine 87 at Lord’s confirmed he really is thriving at present, and Australia don’t yet appear to have much of a plan against the Yorkshireman if the ball isn’t moving big sideways.
Number four looks a really good spot in the order for Brook against this attack, meaning he generally avoids the best of Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc with those two new balls, and we have seen how destructive he can be when conditions are good for batting.
Brook really let rip against Adam Zampa on Friday, always the big test for middle order players against Australia in limited-overs cricket, and with plenty seemingly in his favour, the 9/4 available with bet365 for Brook to make another fifty looks decent business.
Posted at 0800 BST on 28/09/24
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