mvaughan

I said before the first ODI that I thought England looked a good side on paper. They have an aggressive opener in Craig Kieswetter, a devastating match-winner in Kevin Pietersen, a resourceful finisher (Eoin Morgan), a world class spinner (Graeme Swann) and in the form of Jimmy Anderson a seam bowler who can exploit swinging conditions. That's the backbone for a very capable ODI team.

But that's not to say that the 11 we saw play on Tuesday will necessarily be mainstays in the team over the next couple of years, or even for the remainder of the summer. Just ask Paul Collingwood. For so many years he was virtually the first name on the team-sheet and right now he's out of the selectors' thoughts altogether. Injuries and loss of form mean changes are common in modern-day cricket and the busy schedules mean that we also have incidences of players being rested ahead of a certain series or tournament.

Luckily for England there are some promising youngsters waiting in the wings for their chances. I don't mean guys like Ravi Bopara or Samit Patel. We already know what they can do on their day.

Jade Dernbach made his debut the other day and the Surrey man showed he's got something that England haven't really had much of over the last few years: raw pace. We've seen how destructive real speedsters like Dale Steyn and Brett Lee can be at the start of an innings with the new ball in their hands and it offers another dimension to England's bowling attack.

I've heard great things about Ben Stokes over at Durham. He's an orthodox left-handed batsman who plays a vast array of shots and can score very quickly. He also bowls and regularly reaches 80-85mph so that's certainly another string to his bow. I think it's only really a question of time before he gets an England call-up to either the T20 or ODI side. Similar story with James Hildreth of Somerset, who has gained a big reputation on the County circuit as a big-hitting all-rounder.

Of course making the transition from County star to established international cricketer isn't always easy. It was absolutely effortless for someone like Marcus Trescothick but not everyone has been able to cope with the extra pressure. I'm not going to go naming guys who couldn't hack it but cricket fans will know of a few.

Multiple TV cameras at every ground, capacity crowds, the scrutiny of the TV commentators and other sections of the media. One day it's only really the County cricket faithful who know who you are, the next everyone is talking about your technique, questioning your strike rate or shaking their heads at why the selectors gave you the nod over someone else. Whether you make it or not at the highest level is almost always down to whether you've got the right mental attitude to cope with it all. Do you have the belief that you can make it, can you handle the criticism in the right way and can you perform under pressure when your team needs you? That, rather than technique or conditioning is the difference between those who cut the mustard on the international stage and those who don't.


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It was a fine performance from England the other day and I was glad to witness a far more aggressive approach to their batting than what we've seen in recent times. There was real purpose and intent to the way they went about things and it was nice to see the returning Tim Bresnan smashing a few boundaries towards the end of the innings.

Of course Sri Lanka didn't do themselves any favours by bowling some horrible deliveries at the death which the likes of the aforementioned Bresnan and Eoin Morgan duly punished. They also suffered an awful batting collapse which meant they were never really in the game from an early stage of the second innings. That said, the rain helped England a lot more than it did Sri Lanka, and there was a lot more in the pitch for the home side's attack than that of the visitors. The ball also did a lot more under lights than it did when England batted and we know what a threat James Anderson can be when that's the case.

Sometimes England get into a groove where they find great self-belief and go on a run where they win three or four tough, tight matches on the trot. But I think it's a little early to assume that's going to happen in this Series. At the very least I think this second ODI will be a lot closer and the biggest clue as to who may win it will lie in the sort of pitch that they prepare up at Headingley.

If it's a green top where the ball does something then you have to fancy England, who have the better knowledge of those sort of conditions and the better seam attack. But I have a sneaky feeling that the Headingley pitch will be a belter, the sort of track where Sri Lanka chased 321 with 13.5 overs to spare a few years ago. And if it's a flat track that can be conducive to spin, then Sri Lanka will be in pole position to level the Series. Not just because they have more options in the spin department but also because they have the sort of batsman who will really enjoy batting on that sort of track. One such man is Mahela Jayawardene, who failed at The Oval the other day but showed us just what he can do when he gets his eye in with that swashbuckling innings in the T20 match. Back him to top score for Sri Lanka.

It's therefore worth taking a gamble that the Headingley curator produces another lovely track and at the current prices I'm tempted to stick with Tillekeratne Dislhan's men to win this one. I can understand how with rain on the cards the other day Dilshan decided he'd rather chase a reduced total with ten wickets in hand than bat first. But I don't think he'll be making that mistake again and this time he'll probably choose to have first digs and aim for somewhere between 280 and 300. And that should be enough to defend.

One of the big positives for me the other day about England was the batting of Craig Kieswetter who played some lovely shots in a priceless innings. Alastair Cook was unlucky, you always are when you're caught down the legside like that. But I fancy England's latest opening partnership to make a good start at Headingley so I'm also backing them to get 30 or more on the board before the fall of the first wicket at 2.0.


Recommended bets:

Back Sri Lanka to win @ 2.4
Back Mahela Jayawardene to be top Sri Lanka batsman @ 5.0
Back 30 runs or more in the England Opening partnership market @ 2.0


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I saw no reason why England went into the T20 match on Saturday as favourites and I'll say the same about this match.

The last time these two met was admittedly in Sri Lankan conditions but a ten-wicket defeat in any circumstances represents a huge gulf in quality. England were ok at the last World Cup with inspired performances against both South Africa and India in particular but the brand of cricket they played simply wasn't in the same league as that of Tuesday's opponents or eventual winners India.

The surprise for me is that there doesn't seem to be a definite plan to change the way the team plays. It's almost as if they've decided that there was nothing wrong with the approach at the last World Cup and that, if they carry on doing the same thing again, they'll somehow come good eventually.

The two big areas I think England need to address are in the way they approach their batting. The batsmen have to take more risks in terms of trying to clear the ropes and take more responsibility when it comes to converting good starts into hundreds. Scoring 50 off 70 balls and getting out can be a decent contribution on a low-scoring pitch but, on a wicket where you need to post or chase 300, you need your batsman to turn those good platforms into big scores. We saw Andrew Strauss do it a couple of times over the last year or so before retiring from limited-overs cricket and KP certainly did it when he first broke into the side. But there hasn't been enough of it recently. The best players like Sachin Tendulkar, Jacques Kallis and Kumar Sangakkara don't think a half-century is a job done; they appreciate the need to kick on and make the most of the fact they've played themselves in and always target three figures when they get past 50.

The toss wil be important here because if it's a sunny day at the Oval you can post some pretty big scores. Whoever wins the toss will surely bat first so a safe bet may be to back the side who gets first digs on a good track. But if that's Sri Lanka you will have lost the value so it may be just worth taking a bit of a gamble and backing Sri Lanka pre-match at a very attractive 2.4.

Kevin Pietersen loves The Oval - now his home ground of course - and showed both during the Thirst Test and the T20 the other day that he's in good nick so he's my choice for Top England batsman at around 5.3.

I've had huge trouble picking a top Sri Lanka batsman over the past month or so and that's made even more difficult this time because we don't know if Tillekeratne Dilshan is fit to play. So let's turn to the top Sri Lankan wicket-taker market where Lasith Malinga is around 3.3. He may not lead the respective charts or rankings for whatever reason but if there's a more feared ODI bowler in world cricket, I'd like to know about him. Especially when it comes to bowling at the death when you're not just trying to keep your stumps in one piece; you're also trying to score quickly. Because of his slingy action the ball comes at you from a very low trajectory and it's difficult to get underneath it. The best way to play him at the death is therefore to aim to hit the ball from where it came from: straight back past him, mid-off or extra cover. That's easier said than done though and I fancy "The Slinger" to be their top wicket-taker on Tuesday at 3.3.


Recommended Bets:

Back Sri Lanka to win @ 2.4
Back Kevin Pietersen to be top England batsman @ 5.3
Back Lasith Malinga to be Top Sri Lankan wicket-taker @ 3.3


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It's a real shame that the weather has once again played such a big part in this match because this has been a super Test wicket. The ball has swung on occasions, there's been a bit of extra bounce and even something for the spinners on occasion.

At around 17:30 yesterday a draw looked pretty much nailed-on with Sri Lanka still having all ten wickets in the bag and an awful forecast awaiting us on day five. But there was a glimmer of hope when England took two late wickets last night and more good news followed when an updated forecast predicted we may still get some play on Monday after all. Kumar Sangakkara is still at the crease and he'll be the key wicket but he hasn't been in good form over the Series and if England can get him out early on the final day, they really do have every chance of forcing a win. Weather permitting of course. But I think 20 overs of play could well be enough. At 2.1 it's certainly worth a punt that England can still win.

I was very impressed with the way England went about their business on Sunday. I know some people aren't big fans of bringing in a night-watchman but very often the decision lies with the batsman who is due in next (in this case Eoin Morgan) to decide whether he wants to come in or let a lower-order batsman face the last few deliveries of the day. And that's what probably happened here. All credit to Jimmy though, who came in and played some shots this morning. There was more fantastic batting from that man Ian Bell and Eoin Morgan was aggressive too so no one can accuse this England side of not doing their absolute best to try and force a result.

And all credit to Andrew Strauss for making such a positive declaration. It would have been easy to just carry on batting without taking too many risks but the message he gave his batsmen was to go out and score quickly, with a declaration always on his mind. By making Sri Lanka bat again for nearly fifty overs last night he was rewarded with three wickets and if England do win this Test, Strauss' positive intent will have been a crucial part of that.

Had it not been for the weather England would have won this Series 3-0 and that's a big positive to take ahead of that massive Series against India later on in the summer. Before that there's the ODI Series against Sri Lanka of course and with the likes of Lasith Malinga and Angelo Matthews involved, you can expect that to be a lot closer.

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I can't see Sri Lanka finding a way back into this Test series so it's not unreasonable for plenty of England cricket fans to already be thinking about the India series later on in the summer. An obvious area of concern ahead of that is the form of Andrew Strauss. Or more specifically, his recent trend of being pinned LBW against left-armers. If he's getting out that way to Chanaka Welegadara, we can almost picture Zaheer Khan back in India watching on TV licking his lips and setting a himself a few personal targets in terms of how many times he's going to get the England captain out.

Then there's Duncan Fletcher. The workaholic India coach for whom attention to detail is the be-all-and-end-all, as I can testify. He'll be making notes of Strauss' recent vulnerability to left-armers coming round the wicket and will also be plotting his downfall, especially since he knows the Middlesex man's technique inside out. In truth, it's not a recent thing with Strauss. More a case of his opponents not having worked it out until now and the problem seems to be that against left-handers he loses track of where his off-stump is and isn't sure what to play it and what to leave. As a opening batsman, that signals trouble. But Strauss is hardly work-shy himself and he'll have spent the last week or so in the nets with Andy Flower making sure it doesn't happen again at the Rose Bowl. If anything, it could result in him actually playing at a delivery he doesn't need to and getting out that way. Alastair Cook hasn't looked vulnerable to LBW in recent times so all things considered, its' worth backing "caught" in the England first dismissal method market at around 1.7. It's the favourite I know but there are good reasons to think we'll collect on it.

The fact I have so much trouble trying to pick someone in the Top England First innings batsman market is good news for England fans: it means a case can be made for most of them because they're in form. That said, I'm going to leave Kevin Pietersen alone and the same goes for Strauss, simply because he hasn't made a big score yet. Ian Bell is arguably the best value at 6.0 because he's made it look so easy over the past few weeks but we have to be aware of the fact he may come in with England already having big runs on the board. So a straight choice it is between Cook and Jonathan Trott and I'm going to go with the latter solely because there may be some early movement off the pitch which could make bating tricky at the start. Trott it is.

Recommended bets:
Back "caught" in the England First Dismissal market @ 1.7
Back Jonathan Trott to top score for England in the first innings @ 4.6

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There are two pieces of team news ahead of the Third Test and together, they're the last thing a struggling Sri Lanka team wanted to hear. Not only is their captain Tillekaratne Dilshan out with an injury but England will also welcome back James Anderson to the fore.

In honesty, it's not so much Dilshan's role as captain that's the problem. It's his batting they will miss. Kumar Sangakkara will take over, just a couple of months after resigning from the position, so none of this is new territory for him. But whilst senior batsmen Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene have struggled to make a real impact so far with the bat, Dilshan has been the outstanding performer scoring 50, 10 and of course that magnificent 193 which, in retrospect, was the innings that allowed the tourists to salvage a draw in the Second Test. The thing about a player like Dilshan is that he's always positive and when bowlers start to see the ball dispatched to all corners of the ground, they start to doubt themselves and their line and length suffers. And that's as beneficial to Dilshan's batting partners as it is to himself.

Anderson's swing bowling was badly missed at Lord's because the pace attack lacked a bit of variety so it's no surprise the Lancashire man will walk back into the team, with Steve Finn expected to make way. Stuart Broad was touted by some as being the man to miss out but, in fairness to him, he hasn't actually bowled badly; he just hasn't taken too many wickets. Sometimes that just happens in cricket.

The Rose Bowl should be a good batting wicket. We know that firstly because matches involving Hampshire have produced plenty of runs this season and secondly because the county will want to host a Test (for the first time ever) that goes deep into day five rather than one that ends on days three or four. We mustn't forget that cricket is a business like any other and tickets sold, corporate hospitality boxes filled and refreshments purchased are essential to keep the accounting men happy.

The forecast suggests we'll probably lose a session or two to rain at the very least but don't let that alone put you off laying the draw at the off. With Anderson back in the attack and Graeme Swann likely to have some rough patches to bowl at on days four and five I can envisage Sri Lanka once again being on the back foot towards the back end of the Test and desperately trying to save it again. The caveat is that England are 1-0 up in the series and might not necessarily go for broke so the best way to approach this is to lay the draw now at 1.83 and re-back it at around 2.5 when England are on top. Keep all your green on England and no loss on the draw.

Recommended Bet:
Lay the draw at 1.83 and re-back it at 2.5

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Jonathan Trott thoroughly deserves all the success and plaudits that have come his way since he first broke into the Test team. He's now the rightful owner of that crucial number three slot, an important member of the ODI team and this week he was rewarded for his efforts by being named England's Cricketer Of The Year. Seven hundred odd-runs in an Ashes Series would normally be enough to get you the award so Alastair Cook may feel a little hard-done by but Trott has also been very consistent in the 50-over format so few would argue he wasn't a deserved winner.

The Warwickshire man is a good example of how hard work and consistently good performances on the County circuit can reap big rewards.

You could make a good case for Andrew Strauss top scoring for England in the first innings but I can actually imagine a scenario where the skipper scores a ton and then gets out whilst Trott just keeps on going and eventually overtakes him. He's a greedy player, that Trott! So my money is on him outscoring his team-mates once again at around 4.2.

The Sri Lanka topscorer market is a little trickier. It's difficult to tell who's actually in good nick after that horrible second-innings collapse and with Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Tillekaratne Dishan all pretty similar prices, it's difficult to confidently select one over the others. Instead I'm going to back Kumar Sangakkara to score a first innings half-century at around 2.3. He's too good a player to not make an impact sooner or later and the wicket at Lord's will suit him a lot more than the one he struggled on at Cardiff.

Recommended Bets:
Back Andrew Strauss to score a first-innings 100 @ 5.0
Back Jonathan Trott to top score for England in the first innings @ 4.2
Back Kumar Sangakkara to score a first-innings 50 @ 2.3

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We started the summer's tipping well and I've been racking my brains trying to think of a Test Match that I was involved in as a player that had the sort of late drama witnessed on Monday evening. The best I could come up with was when Marcus Trescothick and I had six overs to chase 50 in the final session of the 3rd Test in June 2002. Our opponents? Sri Lanka. We did it with an over to spare despite facing Muttiah Muralitharan when he was at his peak. And they say I wouldn't have made a good T20 player!

Still, that wasn't a patch on what happened last week. Andy Flower said he thought England had about a 3% chance of bowling them out when they took to the field. He may be a great coach and was a fantastic batsman but he's no odds-compiler; England were matched at 1000.0 on Betfair at one stage. What that did prove though was that this England side are made of pretty stern stuff and have the confidence and belief to get positive results when the odds are stacked against them. And for six or seven years now they've been brilliant in English conditions; just look at their results. They're as tough to beat in England as India are on their own patch. Are they the "toughest team on the planet" as Sri Lanka coach Stuart Law described them, even before the First Test? No. India are simply because they're the top ranked Test team in the world. If and when England overtake them then yes, I'll agree with Law on that count.

I must admit I haven't seen much of Jade Dernbach although I hear he bowled with great discipline and intent in a recent Lions match. And I don't think I'll be seeing any more of him this week because I'm sure Steve Finn will come in to replace James Anderson, rather than the Surrey man. I've heard a few suggestions that Finn and Chris Tremlett may be a little too similar but I'm not sure I agree with that. They're fine bowlers who can both vary their line and length when needed and will offer different challenges to the Sri Lanka batsmen. Besides, there's sometimes a danger of thinking things over too much. The number one rule before going into a Test match is to start by picking your four best bowlers before considering anything else and I don't think anyone can argue that at the minute that means Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, Tremlett and Finn.

Lord's has always been a good wicket and also a very successful hunting ground for England in recent times. Logic dictates that with the England batsmen in the sort of form they're in we can trust them to make a huge score and eventually take 20 wickets, especially given that good weather has been forecast for most of the five days. That's taking an overly simplistic look at the situation though and there are two good reasons why I'd be wary of piling into England at 1.7 pre-match. For starters, Sri Lanka could bat first and put on a big first innings score. You can't keep players of the class of Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara out of the runs for too long whilst skipper Tillekaratne Dilshan batted well in the first innings. HAPW Jayawardene scored a first-innings century and TT Samawareera got to 50 so we can conceivably expect some sort of backlash from their batsmen.

The second scenario has England batting first. If they happen to lose a couple of early wickets they'll drift but the more likely scenario is that they'll start very brightly again. Good news for England would-be backers? Well, you'd think so but the Betfair market may be afraid that the wicket is actually too good to produce a result and we'd then see the England price drift a little and the draw price shortening. Either way, an initial lay of England at 1.7 with a view to backing at 2.0 or bigger would be the way I'd approach this.

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Ok, hands up all of you who really thought England were going to win the First Test when they finally got play under way yesterday afternoon. No, me neither.

There's a reason why the layers were offering odds of 1,000 about England on Betfair at that stage and what we witnessed was one of the most unbelievable two sessions of cricket I've ever had the pleasure to watch. By the way, for those of you who did secure those monster prices about Andrew Strauss and his players being all smiles at the end of it all - make mine a double!

But my column on Betting.Betfair did secure a nice profit nonetheless. We started by recommending a back-to-lay of the draw before the off at 2.66 with most of the profit saved on England and we topped that up by going with England at 4.8 (and laying off when they reached 3.0) at the close of play on Friday. We also had England to score 475 runs or more in their first innings at 2.0 which also came good as Jonathan Trott in particular shone with the bat and England piled on the runs. Andrew Strauss and Mahela Jayawardene let us down in the top runscorer markets but we ended up very much in the black at the end of the Test. Or should that be in the green?

The England selectors have some tough decisions to make ahead of the Second Test with James Anderson ruled out and Tillekaratne Dilshan will want to freshen things up himself after a pretty one-dimensional performance by his bowlers and an awful second-innings collapse with the bat. It promises to be another intriguing contest and I'll be previewing it on Thursday and providing another half-way update after day two. England are understandably the favourites to make it two from two and currently trade at 1.67.

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There will be plenty of people very keen on keeping Alastair Cook on their side after his heroics in Australia. You can't really blame them and it's pretty incredible to think that, just over a year ago, he was probably just one failure away from being dropped. The Essex man is now seen as one of the rocks in this superb England side.

After the way he batted in that England Lions Match, Eoin Morgan will be carrying some punters' money too. But my own hard-earned will be on Andrew Strauss. He'll be desperate to get this new phase of his career in which he's solely the Test captain off to the best possible start. Strauss is in pretty decent nick too, having already scored two centuries for Middlesex this season, one of which was against Sri Lanka in a warm-up match. That means he's not only had a good look at their bowling line-up, he's also taken them apart! He's the sort of captain who likes to lead by example at the top of the innings and, at 4.8, looks the outstanding choice in this market.

As for Sri Lanka, you could make a case for any of Tillekaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara or Mahela Jayawardene. They're the class acts in this batting line-up and the ones who have previous experience of playing in conditions where the ball will swing. My preference goes for the latter of the three at 4.9. Dilshan will have the pressure of the captaincy weighing him down a bit given he's just taken up the role, not to mention the fact he'll have to face a new ball that may be moving around early on. Sangakkara bats at three so he might have to face a swinging ball too and I've seen him struggle in the past when that's been the case. I've said already that batting might get easier as the match progresses so because of his class and the fact he'll come in at four, I'm siding with Jayawardene.

Recommended Bets:
Back Andrew Strauss to be first innings top England batsman at 4.8
Back Mahela Jayawardene to be first innings top Sri Lankan batsman at 4.9

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