Australia favourites again

After the excitement of Saturday's tie at Lord's in the NatWest Series final, England and Australia lock horns once again for a three-match one-day series known as the NatWest Challenge. The series begins at Headingley on Thursday and having scrambled their way to a tie of the series final at Lord's, England will be buoyant and hopeful that they can continue to match the world champions.

bet365 have yet to publish their full prices for the series, but if the prices for last Saturday's Lord's match mean anything, then Australia are likely to be 8/15 (1.53) favourites for the series, while England should be installed at 6-4, with the draw a 4-1 shot.

Going into the NatWest series, which also included Bangladesh, Australia had won their previous seven one-day matches, nine of their last 10 and 16 of their last 20, while England had won just four of their last 10 and only 10 of their last 20. Things look a little healthier for England fans now, and given the way they recovered from 33-5 to tie the match at Lord's bodes well for the mental battles to come over the rest of the summer.

Headingley has been a fairly successful ground for England in one-day matches over the years. Of the 20 games there they have won 12 and lost just seven, with one no-result - always a possibility given the weather in Leeds. In the matches between the two, however, Australia hold the upper hand having won two of the three encounters at Yorkshire's home.

Lord's and The Oval will play host to the second and third games in the series. At Lord's, England have won 16 of 31 matches, while they've beaten Australia in four of their eight matches there, losing just three. At The Oval, they've won 16 of 25 matches, and it's even between the two sides, with a couple of wins apiece from four clashes.

And those of you looking for pointers might look back to 1997 when England won the opening match at Headingley on the way to a 3-0 series triumph, though Australia did of course bounce back to retain the Ashes again.