mvaughan

[u]The sub-continent[/u] Sri Lanka, currently trading at 6.4, will enjoy playing in their own conditions and having seasoned campaigners like Tillekeratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Lasith Malinga in the side will be invaluable. I was concerned about their lack of a mystery spinner in a post-Murali world, but the emergence of Akila Dhananjaya looks to have filled that gap and they will be right up there. I like the look of them at 6.4. India are trading as 6.2 favourites and I wouldn't discourage getting involved at that price. A knockout match at a T20 World Cup is a high-pressure situation and the experience of playing year-on-year-out in the IPL will certainly help their players. They have an embarrassment of riches to pick from and you know that under MS...

England haven't bowled, fielded or batted well during this series. Other than that, they've been just fine! Joking aside, I've talked about the batsmen making starts and not kicking on, wasting energy with intimidating tactics and bowling the wrong lengths. To those we can now add the fact they haven't made the most of that second batting powerplay. The new ICC regulations have brought about a change meaning that now the powerplays can't be taken between the 11th and 15th overs. That means that the fielding captain normally takes the bowling one between the 16th and 20th and that the batting side normally take the batting powerplay between the 36th and 40th overs. The problem is you only really capitalise on the fielding restrictions if a) you have set batsmen at the crease and b)...

Very often when you lose a game of cricket you can go back and at least take some positives from it. The worrying thing for England is that really wasn't the case with Monday's match. Ok, Steve Finn bowled at over 90mph at times and continues to look a great prospect but that was about it. We had five batsmen getting past 30 and failing to make a single half-century between them. I'll give Jonny Bairstow some slack because he's a young player on his first England tour and in fairness to Samit Patel, he got one that kept very low. But just like I said before that match, you need to get big scores in India to win games and unless someone does that, things aren't going to improve for England. And there's no excuse for someone not getting one. You only need to look at how easily Virat Kohli...

I've already said in my series preview that Friday's match could well be England's best chance of winning a match. Never underestimate the importance of meticulous preparation and the work done by the back-room staff in briefing the players on what to expect from the opposition. And in that regard England are a lot better at doing those things than India. If that's the case, Alastair Cook's men have a great chance of going 1-0 up and if they manage to do that, a great chance of pushing India all the way. That wouldn't be great news for my 4-1 correct score prediction but it would show just how far England have come as an ODI team. If it's India who win this first game however, England could be in for a really torrid time and lose the series heavily. The first thing England need to...

Injuries, losing tosses and even Duckworth-Lewis have all consipired against India at one stage or another but a first chance to bat second may finally see them secure a win on this Tour. Or at the very least, come pretty close once again. Cricket can really be a cruel game at times. And don't India know it. They could easily have been 2-1 up in this series going into the last match at Cardiff but find themselves 3-0 down. First it was injuries to world-class players including Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan. Then it was the four tosses in a row that they lost and meant they had to bat first when they're better suited to chasing. And when they did eventually get themselves into winning positions it was first the weather (the first ODI that ended with no...

The fact that the ECB saw fit to leave KP out shows, firstly, that England have got a very good squad with competition for every position. That was reinforced by the batting performance in the absence of both Pietersen and Eoin Morgan on Tuesday night. There has been talk that Morgan's injury will boost India, but he wasn't missed at the Rose Bowl and you have got to remember that there are still players in the team who have plenty to prove in the one-day format; from Alastair Cook to Ian Bell to Craig Kieswetter. I think this series was a good opportunity to 'rest' Pietersen; I'm not convinced he is a shoe-in anyway, with an average of 20-odd over the past two years. And you'd think that if anyone needs a rest it would be one of the bowlers. Put it this way, the ECB wasn't disappointed...

It was good entertainment at the Rose Bowl the other night, with some high-class batting from both sides and top quality fielding from England, but it was once again so evident that India simply have no bowling attack at all. The only way I can see India succeeding on Friday is putting England into bat and then relying on their batsman to chase down a total. They have plenty of quality in the batting department, as I have said before, with Patel, Kohil and - in particular - Rahane impressing greatly and they have enough to chase 280 or 300 on the Oval pitch. But, unlike my esteemed Betfair colleague Ed Hawkins, I can't back an India victory given the lack of bowling options, so another back-to-lay bet at 2.5, trading at around 2.0 would be the way to go. That was the profitable...

India got a bit lucky with the conditions on Saturday with the clouds coming over just as England came out to bat. If the weather had stayed the same, England would have chased down 275. But there were hopeful signs that we will see a closer battle during this one-day series than we did the Tests, with some of the young Indian batsman showing real appetite to get runs. Rahane looked like a proper player - a world beater even - Patel played well to get his 95, while Kohli shows real promise. As a result of the injection of youth, we saw an Indian side with more energy which can only bode well for the series. We're at the Rose Bowl on Tuesday, so it could be a slow pitch which would suit the Indian batsman. With India currently priced up at 2.56, a back-to-lay could be the value...

England added a T20 victory to their Series whitewash and MS Dhoni will be scratching his head wondering how he's going to beat England in any format at the minute. Jade Dernback bowled superbly on Wednesday night and Eoin Morgan was the difference with the bat. If it hadn't been for his knock at a time when England were losing quick wickets and threatening to lose their way in a tough run chase, India would have won the game. For all of the criticism aimed at England after a disastrous ODI Series out in Australia and a crushing defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka in the quarter-finals of the World Cup, we shouldn't forget that they remain extremely strong at home and it's been a long time since they lost a Series at home in the 50-over format. There are two main areas they need to...