Australia favoured to beat England in NatWest series

After all the excitement of the Twenty20, England will face the Australians at Bristol in confident mood. However with just one England ODI victory in the last 15 meetings between these sides, history suggests that the visitors will draw first blood on Sunday.

Australia were disappointing in the Twenty20, but you shouldn't read too much into this. They lack experience in that type of game, and still managed to make over 300 runs in each of their recent one-dayers against county sides. Considering the quality of their squad, they are still favourites to win this one. They have far more match winners, and the pitch should be in perfect condition for their bowlers. McGrath, Gillespie and Lee have the potential to make light work of our opening batsmen.

Bristol is a tough ground to score runs at, with an average of around 220 per game at County level this season. It's therefore just as well that John Lewis is expected to make his ODI debut for England on Sunday - he bowled impressively in the Twenty20 and knows this ground very well. It's fair to say that with the exception of Harmison, all of England's bowlers are better at ODIs. With Gough in great form at the moment, England still have a chance.

Of the batsmen on show, Trescothick and Ponting are the ones to watch. Even in difficult conditions these two have the ability to score runs quickly. If Trescothick, Jones and Vaughan put together a decent fifteen-over scoring session at the beginning of the innings, then England will be in a very strong position. bethilo has predicted 120 to 130 runs for Pietersen in the NatWest Series, but if England's batsmen start well, he might not get much of a run out on Sunday.

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