Rajasthan in the pink at the top of the IPL standings

With 31 group matches out of 70 done and dusted, the IPL 2024 is approaching its halfway point, and the gulf between the tournament’s frontrunners and backmarkers is widening with every passing day – as revealed by the yawning chasm that’s opened up in bet365’s tournament odds.

At the top of the tree, Rajasthan Royals are fully in the pink after a stunning start to their campaign. In winning six games out of seven, they’ve opened up a four-point gap on their most recent victims, Kolkata Knight Riders, who were left stunned on Tuesday night by arguably the greatest knock of Jos Buttler’s iconic IPL career.

And this is reflected by their skinny price for the title – they’ve won just once before, in the IPL’s inaugural season in 2008 - but are now clear favourites at 11/4, ahead of the defending champions are Chennai Super Kings (10/3), who are lurking menacingly in third spot at present, having won handsomely in their last two outings, not least thanks to their evergreen icon, MS Dhoni – back in the ranks after relinquishing the captaincy, and yet to be dismissed this season while batting at a 236 strike-rate.

When it comes to brutal strokeplay, however, few line-ups have got more bases covered than Sunrisers Hyderabad – are third-favourites at present on 4/1, but delivering shock and awe on demand, as shown by this week’s IPL-record total of 287 for 3 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, which in turn beat the previous mark of 277 for 3 that they set against Mumbai Indians two weeks ago. With Travis Head at the top of the order and Heinrich Klaasen bombing the death overs, they are shaping up as the side that no team will want to meet in the play-offs.

Not that RCB are being given a snowball’s chance of making it that far, however. Their flat-lining campaign has delivered one win in seven so far, leaving them all but are out of the running at 150/1 for the title.

Delhi Capitals and Punjab Kings are similarly considered to be no-hopers at 66/1 and 80/1 respectively, but Mumbai Indians – curiously – are considered a far better prospect despite also languishing on four points with two wins from six, having endured a turbulent time amid the captaincy switch from Rohit Sharma to Hardik Pandya. Perhaps that comes down to the fact that MI are due to play each of those two teams in their next three outings. Win those, and suddenly they will be right back in the mix.

No team has won a hat-trick of County Championship titles since Yorkshire in 1968, but that could yet change this year with Surrey beginning the 2024 season as hot favourites to add to their consecutive crowns in 2022 and 2023.

Under the leadership of Rory Burns, and with England Test stars Ollie Pope and Ben Foakes set to feature from the start of the summer, Surrey are 13/8 to seal Division One, according to the odds-setters at bet365.

By comparison, last season’s nearest challengers Essex are a distant 6/1, and though that still makes them second-favourites in the top flight – having themselves been the country’s stand-out red-ball team from 2017 to 2020 - the departure of their rising star Dan Lawrence for The Oval, along with the retirement of the great Sir Alastair Cook, epitomises the growing distance between the two club’s expectations.

Further down the pecking order, Warwickshire are this season’s third-favourites at 7/1, with Lancashire just behind them on 8/1, although that could change after the opening round of fixtures, given that they host Surrey at Old Trafford next week in a high-octane season opener. Nathan Lyon, their Australian offspinner, promises to be a key weapon during his three-month stay.

Durham, newly promoted after a thrilling campaign in Division Two last season, are perhaps the most interestingly priced at 12/1. If their squad cohesion and clear Bazball-style gameplans can withstand the rise in standards in the top flight, then who’s to say they won’t be adding to their three Championship pennants between 2008 and 2013?

The battle for the drop, meanwhile, looks like being a two-horse race, with Kent a distant 20/1 – having lost their star batter Jordan Cox to Essex – and newly promoted Worcestershire favourites to flunk at 25/1.

Who’s going to be coming up in the other direction though? The bookie’s favourites are Yorkshire, the crisis club de nos jours, who are strongly fancied at 15/8, having attempted to put a lot of their off-field issues behind them in recent months. Middlesex, at 11/2, are joint second-favourites, although their troubles might only just be beginning, given the financial strife that coloured their off-season.

We’re back under starter’s orders for the IPL. The 17th season of cricket’s premier T20 tournament gets underway at Chepauk on Friday, as the defending champions Chennai Super Kings take on the newly-rebranded Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the tournament opener.

The contest will pit together two of India’s most iconic cricketers in MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli, who missed the recent England Test series for the birth of his child and will be back on the big stage for the first time in two months.

There’s not a whole lot between the two teams, according to the odds-setters at bet365. CSK are marginal favourites at 4/6, with RCB close behind them on 6/5, while Kohli himself, at 12/5, is joint-favourite alongside his captain, Faf du Plessis, to be RCB’s top-scorer. Only CSK’s Ruturaj Gaikwad, at 21/10, is more strongly favoured for this contest.

But what of the overall odds for this edition of the tournament? Both CSK and RCB are strongly fancied for the title, although that’s often been said of RCB in particular, who have yet to claim the title despite their star billing. But it’s another of the old guard who are this season’s frontrunners.

Mumbai Indians were arguably the best T20 team in existence while winning five titles in eight seasons between 2013 and 2020. They’ve gone off the boil in more recent campaigns, and even finished rock-bottom in 2022, but showed signs of their former glories in reaching last year’s play-offs. At 7/2, they are considered the team to beat this time around.

Much of that standing rests on the peerless powers of Jasprit Bumrah, the best fast bowler of the moment, and a man whose every spell drips with wicket-taking threat. They’ve suffered a late dent to the bowling stocks with the leg injury that has ruled out Australia’s Jason Behrendorff, but England’s Luke Wood is an able left-arm replacement.

On the batting front, all eyes will be on Rohit Sharma, after his captaincy tenure was controversially ended to accommodate the signing of Hardik Pandya from Gujarat Titans, and that subplot could be one of the defining themes of their campaign.

At the opposite end of expectations, Punjab Kings are once again the tournament’s rank outsiders at 16/1, after a history of chronic underachievement – after finishing as semi-finalists in the inaugural tournament in 2008, they’ve had one anomalous runners-up finish in 2014, and outside of that have never finished higher than fifth.

Their opening fixture, however, is against fellow outsiders Delhi Capitals (14/1) on Saturday. One or other of those teams will have the chance to start their campaign with a bang. Whether it can be a sign of things to come will remain to be seen.

It’s all-square as England and India head to Rajkot for the third of five Tests, after two fascinating encounters at Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam. India’s series-levelling 106-run win in the latter was achieved despite some feisty fourth-innings batting from England’s Bazballers, who have shown beyond any doubt how they intend to mix it with the hosts and favourites for the remainder of the campaign.

And so, while they are once again the longer shot for victory at 11/4, compared to India’s 4/9, England’s terms of engagement have been firmly established. Another fast-paced contest is anticipated, despite reports that the Rajkot pitch will be among the best for batting in this series – in fact, they emerged with a draw when the venue last hosted a Test back in 2016, with Alastair Cook blocking his way to a final-day century.

No such prospect this time out, however. The draw is a long shot at 9/1, while the smart money is on a four-day finish one way or another, with odds of 11/2 saying that it’ll be done and dusted after lunch. Of course, it was at the same stage of England’s last visit in 2021 that they were condemned to a two-day rout on a dustbowl in Ahmedabad, but 20/1 says that both teams will prove more durable this time around.

So, if the runs are expected to flow, which bowler is best placed to stop either team in their tracks? The odds-setters at bet365 have retained faith in India’s iconic spinner, R Ashwin, who begins the game on 499 Test wickets and is 7/2 favourite to add significantly to that haul. However, England have played him with rare authority on this trip, with his series economy-rate topping four an over for the first time in his 97-Test career.

The one true point of difference in the Hyderabad Test was the peerless Jasprit Bumrah, the ICC’s newly-crowned No.1 bowler in the world, whose nine-wicket haul included the outstanding figures of 6 for 45 in the first innings. None of England’s batters, with the honorable exception of Zak Crawley, was able to combat him with any authority, and if he can serve up a repeat performance, his odds of 4/1 could be a licence to print money.

Of England’s bowlers, Tom Hartley is the shortest price at 6/1 to be the leading wicket-taker, followed by the legspinner Rehan Ahmed, at 15/2, notwithstanding the visa issues that have left a cloud over his availability for the match. James Anderson was impressive at Hyderabad too, but his more distant odds of 11/1 point to the likelihood that this will be a tough pitch for the quicks to make any significant impact.

Among the batters, it’s hard once again to look beyond India’s openers. Both Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal are 3/1 favourites to top-score, just as Jaiswal did in Hyderabad with his brilliant 209, followed by their second-innings centurion, Shubman Gill (5/1). Despite a tough series so far, England’s class act remains Joe Root – 11/2 says he’ll be back at the top of the run-scoring charts this week.

What on earth are we supposed to make of England’s extraordinary victory in the first Test against India? Was it just a fluke for the ages, or definitive proof that Bazball has upended all of Test cricket’s established norms? Should India simply brush it off as an anomaly, or have England established new terms of engagement for this series?

To judge by the odd-setters at bet365, the former train of thought most definitely still holds sway. The hosts remain firm favourites to square the series in this week’s second Test at Vizag, at 8/15, with England a significantly more distant 21/10. The only result that seems to have been ruled out is the draw. England have played out just one of those in 19 Tests, and that match at Old Trafford required two days of rain. Odds of 11/1 suggests that scenario is not about to repeat itself.

Nevertheless, England’s victory in Hyderabad was achieved thanks to some remarkable individual performances, most particularly Ollie Pope’s magnificent 196 and Tom Hartley’s debut haul of 7 for 62 in the final innings. Both men were, by a distance, the most prolific performers with bat and ball respectively, although India’s knowledge of their home conditions remains the clinchers so far as the second-Test odds are concerned.

No fewer than seven of India’s players are considered more likely to be named Player of the Match than any of England’s players, with Rohit Sharma (15/2) the favourite and his opening partner Yashasvi Jaiswal close behind on 8/1. Axar Patel (17/2) is considered the likeliest bowler to claim that accolade, having been the key instigator of India’s turnaround in the 2021 series, while Joe Root (10/1) is the first Englishman on the list.

The real value, therefore, lurks further down the field, particularly among England players who might yet spring another surprise. Pope, last week’s Player of the Match is a more distant 20/1, the same price as Hartley, while eight of England’s squad are priced at 25/1, including the uncapped offspinner Shoaib Bashir, who has a strong chance of making his debut this week. And, seeing as each of the last three spinners to debut for England all picked up five-fors in their first outing, who’s to say he won’t be the fourth?

Bashir is 10/1 to be the leading wicket-taker at Vizag, quite some way behind the market leader, R Ashwin (3/1) and Jasprit Bumrah, who was the outstanding seamer on either side in the first Test, and is 7/2 to top the wickets standings this time out. As for the batting, Rohit leads the way at 7/2, having been the difference between the teams three years ago, but again the value lurks among England’s unfancied options. Ben Stokes, for instance, looked in prime form in England’s first innings in Hyderabad – 20/1 says he’ll be the leading run-scorer in the second Test.

It’s been a compelling season in Australia’s Big Bash League, with impressive crowds backing up some high-octane exploits on the field, not least in this week’s final group-stage result, as Sydney Sixers hunted down Perth Scorchers’ imposing target of 198 to leapfrog into Friday’s Qualifier at the expense of the defending champions.

And that dramatic final-ball victory at the Optus Stadium has up-ended the bet365 odds going into this weekend’s knock-out phase. Scorchers, the five-times winners and long-time tournament favourites, have drifted out to 7/2, as they now need to win three straight games to claim their sixth title. Instead, it is Sixers, at 6/4, who are the bookies’ favourites, as they prepare to meet table-toppers Brisbane Heat (15/8).

Adelaide Strikers, at 7/1, complete the final four, but their more distant price reflects both a middling league phase, in which they won five and lost four of their ten games, with one wash-out, and also the daunting challenge of beating Scorchers on home soil… until Sixers stunned them, they had won 17 of their previous 18 matches in Perth, so the chances of them now losing two in a row are surely remote.

Even so, Scorchers will have to do without their heaviest piece of artillery in the knock-outs. Laurie Evans was in formidable form in Saturday’s defeat, clobbering 72 off 34 balls to take his tournament tally to 292 in seven innings, at an average of 58.40 and an extraordinary strike-rate of 189.61.

But he’s now decamped to play in the ILT20, as have a raft of fellow star players, many of them England-qualified. Strikers will be missing this season's joint-highest wicket-taker in Jamie Overton, and the third-highest run-scorer in Chris Lynn, as well as Adam Hose. Brisbane Heat will be without Sam Billings and captain Colin Munro against the Sixers, who themselves will have to cover for the loss of James Vince.

All of which leaves Strikers’ Matt Short out of sight as the tournament’s leading run-scorer. He’s the only man to have breached the 400 mark, let alone his current tally of 509 at 72.71, and with up to three more games to come, his enduring form could be critical in the competition’s shake-down.

It’s been a few weeks since England completed their 2023 itinerary with a 3-2 T20I series loss to West Indies in the Caribbean. However, with the calendar having now ticked over into the new year, it means the 2024 T20 World Cup will be upon us before we know it.

And so, with six months remaining until the next ICC global gathering, how are the contenders stacking up?

Despite their latest losses in the Caribbean, and their abject display in the 50-over version in India last year, England remain right up there among the favourites as they prepare to defend the title that they won in Melbourne 14 months ago. They are 4/1 second-favourites, according to the odds-setters at bet365, tucked in behind India at 11/4, and nestled alongside their old rivals Australia – the team that succeeded them as ODI world champions in November, and also preceded them as T20 World Cup trophy-holders, having won in the UAE in 2021.

Elsewhere in the betting, South Africa are considered fourth-favourites, at 7/1, after their run to the semi-finals in the 50-over version, but the value at present perhaps resides with the hosts, West Indies. They are currently 12/1, but as two-times winners in 2012 and 2016, they have proven pedigree in the 20-over format, and as their six-laden victory over England recently showed, they certainly know how to dominate in their own conditions.

India also succumbed to West Indies in a recent five-match series, and it’s worth adding a caveat about their market-leading status. Despite so often seeming like the side to beat, they haven’t won an ICC global trophy since 2013, and with their players barred from participation in domestic tournaments outside the IPL, they perhaps lack the overseas experience that many other opponents will bring to their campaigns. Caveat Emptor, if you’re looking for an easy win.

Further down the odds, there are some rank outsiders, most notably newcomers Uganda at 1500/1, but also some that could conceivably spring a surprise given a fair run of form. Afghanistan, at 33/1, are perhaps the best bet among the less-heralded teams – their vast experience of T20 domestic cricket will make them tough opponents at any stage of the competition. And even Ireland (200/1) toppled the reigning champions England in a rain-affected match at Melbourne last time out.

Christmas is a-coming, which means the season of rolling in from the office party and flicking on the action from Down Under is nearly upon us. The Australia cricket season kicks off in earnest this week with the start of the Men’s Big Bash League 2023-24, and understandably a familiar powerhouse team is leading the market ahead of the first ball being bowled on December 7.

With five titles in 12 seasons, including back-to-back wins in 2021-22 and 2022-23, Perth Scorchers are not only the defending champions but the Big Bash’s most storied winners, and according to the odds-setters at bet365, they are 13/5 favourites to make it a hat-trick of titles this time around.

The Scorchers’ established squad contains two men who’ve been in world-beating form for their country. Mitchell Marsh was one of cornerstones of Australia’s stunning World Cup triumph in India, with a brace of centuries against Pakistan and Bangladesh, while Josh Inglis – a surprise inclusion as wicketkeeper for that same campaign – cemented his status with a blistering 47-ball fifty in the subsequent T20I series against India.

And lo and behold, those same two men are leading the market for top tournament run-scorer too, at 9/1, just ahead of Adelaide Strikers’ Matt Short (10/1). Another World Cup star, Melbourne Stars’ Glenn Maxwell, is backed at 14/1 to carry over his explosive form, while there are a number of familiar Englishmen in the mix as well. James Vince (16/1) and Alex Hales (18/1) have proven pedigree in this tournament, as does Laurie Evans (22/1), whose explosive half-century sealed the 2021-22 final for Scorchers.

In the bowling stakes, Sydney Sixers’ Sean Abbott played only a walk-on part in the World Cup win, but 8/1 says he’ll be the tournament’s top wicket-taker. But if you’re looking for a man who’s in a wicket-taking mood at present, it’s hard to look past Melbourne Renegades’ Adam Zampa, whose 23 scalps in the World Cup were second only to India’s Mohammad Shami. He’s 18/1 to go one better and top the charts in the BBL.

For Player of the Tournament, however, the odds-setters have settled on the most eye-catching man in the field. From his World Cup-record 44-ball century against the Netherlands to his incredible double-century against Afghanistan, and on through his subsequent onslaught in the T20I series, Maxwell has been racking up the showreel moments in recent weeks. Odds of 12/1 say he will carry that form home with him.

Forty-five matches down, three to go. The 2023 World Cup is reaching its endgame, and the field has been whittled down from ten teams to four. England are long gone, their seventh-place finish at least a marginal improvement on their run of six losses in their first seven games, while the hosts India march into the semi-finals with nine consecutive wins.

And, not unsurprisingly, India remain runaway favourites to land their third World Cup title, and their first since hosting the 2011 tournament. According to the odds-setters at bet365, they are 1/3 to beat New Zealand in Wednesday’s first semi-final, and 10/11 to claim the overall spoils.

Can anyone stop them? Their bowling attack has been astonishingly on-point all tournament long, while their fanatical home support is guaranteed to be out in force once again in Mumbai on Wednesday for their semi-final against New Zealand – the same side that derailed them at the same stage four years ago.

New Zealand are used to flying under the radar at global events, but Kane Williamson’s men are nevertheless gunning for their third final in a row since 2015, and though they are the rank outsiders of the four remaining sides, they are also perhaps the one side that India will be most uncomfortable facing, given how content they are to embrace that underdog status. Odds of 7/1 say they can pull off one of the biggest surprises of the tournament.

As for the other half of the draw, Australia’s clash with South Africa revives memories of their epic tied semi-final in 1999 – arguably the greatest World Cup match ever played, and certainly in the top two alongside the thrills of the 2019 final.

South Africa landed the latest blow in this great rivalry when they romped to a 134-run win in the group stages in Lucknow, at which point Australia were rock-bottom in the standings with two defeats from two. But since then they’ve turned on the afterburners – seven consecutive wins including a come-from-behind win over Afghanistan, thanks to Glenn Maxwell’s extraordinary 201 not out.

As five-times winners, Australia have hit peak form just when it most matters, and are slender favourites to hand South Africa another dose of World Cup heartbreak. At 10/3, they are also considered the likeliest rivals to swipe the title from under India’s nose too. Is that remotely feasible? We can but wait and see.

How much faith have you got left in England’s World Cup campaign? Jos Buttler’s men probably need to win five games out of five just to reach the semi-finals, and they haven’t even played the unbeaten pace-setters India yet.

But you can still back them to get there at 14/1 with bet365, and if you’re happy with small returns on your investments, you can get odds of 1/33 for them to bomb out beforehand, which currently feels like a licence to print money ..

Either way, the bookmakers’ lack of faith in England could hardly feel further removed from their near-total conviction that the hosts India will continue their serene progress. With five wins from five, each of them a fuss-free run-chase, they are currently 4/11 to reach the final, and 11/5 to fall short.

It feels as though individual feats are pretty much all England have got left to fight for. And to that end, the market for leading wicket-taker has taken an interesting turn overnight, with the news that Reece Topley, England’s most effective bowler, has been ruled out of the campaign with a broken finger.

With eight wickets in his three appearances, Topley is still England’s leading wicket-taker in the tournament, but his odds on remaining so have slipped from 7/5 to a distant 50/1. Adil Rashid is currently in second place on six wickets, and at 1/3 he seems sewn up for that accolade now. But as England know from past World Cup disasters, when a campaign starts to go off the rails, things can change pretty quickly.

On the batting front, Dawid Malan has been the best on show for England with a fine matchwinning century against Bangladesh, and at 6/5, bet365 clearly back him to continue hoovering up the runs. But England are not yet completely out of the running, which means there’s still time to put some faith in the team’s habitual miracle-men.

Jos Buttler, the captain, is 12/1 to be his team’s leading run-scorer; Ben Stokes, back after injury, is more distant still at 66/1. But if you think there’s any chance left that the world champions can turn their tournament around, this pair will surely have to be in the thick of the remaining action.

The World Cup is finally upon us. Over the coming 45 days, 48 matches will take place across 10 venues, the length and breadth of India, beginning in Ahmedabad in Gujarat, where the 2019 finalists, England and New Zealand, will pick up where they left off in that unforgettable final four years ago.

As defending champions, England go into this tournament as 10/3 second-favourites, behind the hosts India (15/8), although bet365 are currently offering bet-boosted odds of 7/2 on England, which makes them a more tempting flutter. Either way, in the ten-team round-robin format, it would take quite a collapse in form for any of the favourites to miss out on the last four. And from there, as we saw four years ago, it’s all up for grabs.

But if the market leaders do falter for one reason or another, then the chasing pack stands to benefit quite considerably. And so the interesting odds lie further down the field. New Zealand, for instance, are a more distant 10/1 despite coming within six inches of glory four years ago. Likewise, South Africa have never won the tournament, but in Heinrich Klaasen they possess one of the most potent white-ball batters going around, and 9/1 says they aren’t a bad shot as an outside bet.

The rank outsiders are the Netherlands at 750/1, and with due respect to Leicester City, that narrative is surely too improbable to contemplate. But Sri Lanka (40/1) reached the Asia Cup final last month (albeit they crashed and burned thereafter), while Bangladesh (100/1) and even Afghanistan (125/1) are surely capable of overturning a big gun or two in Asian conditions. Make that a big gun or four, and they too could be in the last-four reckoning…

In the top performers’ stakes, India’s players dominate the markets, with Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli 13/2 to be the leading tournament run-scorer (closely followed by Rohit Sharma at 10/1), while Jasprit Bumrah (8/1) and Kuldeep Yadav (17/2) top the wicket-takers’ odds.

The more interesting picks are lurking elsewhere – not least a pair of legspinners with subtly different tournament expectations. England’s Adil Rashid has been the linchpin of their double World Cup-winning attack, and on India’s pitches, he will doubtless be in the action once again. At 14/1, he’s a strong pick, especially given how deep in the tournament England expect to go.

And then there’s Rashid Khan, one of the outstanding bowlers in white-ball history, upon whom so many of Afghanistan’s hopes will rest in the coming weeks. He is also at 14/1, but the better he fares, the better that long shot on his country will look.

As for the rest of the batting … it is England’s strongest suit, lest we forget, which makes Dawid Malan (12/1) an intriguing bet. He recently became England’s joint-fastest batter to 1000 ODI runs, and if he gets in across 50 overs, he’s liable to go big. Likewise his opening partner Jonny Bairstow (16/1) and their No.3 Joe Root, who has been out of form in recent weeks, but at 20/1 is well priced to bounce back over the course of an 11-game campaign.

The waiting is nearly over. In barely two weeks’ time, the 2023 World Cup will be underway, with the tournament set to open at the vast Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad with a rematch of the epic final in 2019 – England vs New Zealand.

But who is going to lift the trophy this time around, and which sides offer real value as the talking comes to an end?

According to the odds-setters at bet365, it’s hard to look past the hosts, India – and perhaps with good reason, seeing as each of the last three tournaments has been won by the home team: England in 2019, Australia in 2015 … and India themselves when they last staged the competition back in 2011.

They are the clear favourites at 11/5, and seeing as they dismissed Sri Lanka for 50 in last week’s Asia Cup final in Colombo, en route to a ten-wicket win in just 6.1 overs, they will come into the tournament with serious form, as epitomised by Mohammad Siraj’s career-best 6 for 21, and the successful return to fitness of the mighty Jasprit Bumrah.

But don’t write off the defending champions England. At 3/1 they are the best of the rest, and showed in last week’s 3-1 series win over New Zealand, that they have talent to burn – as Jason Roy, one of their stand-out performers in 2019, would sadly attest. Ben Stokes marked his return to 50-over cricket with an England-record 182 at The Oval, and given the round-robin tournament format, a place in the semi-finals will surely be the bare minimum of their expectations.

Australia at 9/2 are slightly longer odds, having received quite the beasting at the hands of South Africa last week. But as five-times champions, no team has a better sense of what it takes at the sharp end of a campaign. They will always be ones to watch. But so, too, are the South Africans – eternal World Cup bridesmaids, maybe, but in Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller, they possess two of the most devastating hitters in the current world game. Odds of 10/1 say they might be worth a flutter this time.

Further down the order, Sri Lanka are 25/1– and though that may seem generous after the Asia Cup final, they also have experience of winning a World Cup in Asia, way back in 1996. Familiar conditions will doubtless count for something at the tournament’s sharp end. And so, for that reason, Bangladesh at 50/1 seems the obvious opportunity for a dabble. England had to work mighty hard to beat them on home soil back in March. If they can fight their way into a top-four placing, anything’s possible in back-to-back knockout games.

The 2023 Hundred is nearing its completion, with the top three teams all set for this weekend’s Eliminator and Final, in both the men’s and women’s competitions.

On the men’s side of the draw, Oval Invincibles are already locked in for the Lord’s final on Sunday evening, awaiting the winner of Saturday’s showdown between Southern Brave and Manchester Originals; meanwhile, for the women, it is Brave – the two-times runners-up - in pole position, hoping to make it third time lucky after Northern Superchargers and Welsh Fire have battled it out in their Eliminator at the Kia Oval.

And unsurprisingly, it is the automatic qualifiers in each competition who are favourites to take the title according to the odds-setters at Bet365. Brave’s women are 4/5, compared to Superchargers and Fire at 14/5; Invincibles’ men are more strongly fancied still, at 5/6 versus 11/4 for their two rivals.

We are a week into the third edition of the Hundred, with the early runners starting to show some form (when the weather allows). In the men’s competition, defending champions Trent Rockets showed why they are 15/4 favourites with bet365 by winning a nail-biter on the opening night – although they were denied a shot at another two points by the rain in Birmingham at the weekend. If you’re looking for more in the way of value, keep an eye on Welsh Fire (7/1). They didn’t win a game through the 2022 edition but were victorious in their opener, against Manchester Originals, and pushed both Southern Brave, the 2021 champions, and Oval Invincibles all the way – the latter game ending in a dramatic tie at The Oval on Sunday.

Leading the betting to be top run-scorer is Jos Buttler at 9/2. England’s white-ball captain also leads the early standings with 99 from two knocks and is available to play the full tournament for Originals. Sam Hain made a strong impression on Rockets debut and is 10/1, while Australian Matt Short (10/1) shone for Northern Superchargers as they racked up only the second 200-plus score in the Hundred’s history. Don’t discount the likes of this year’s T20 Blast top-scorer, James Vince (16/1), or England candidate Will Jacks (22/1), one of only two men to score a 100-ball hundred.

The Women’s Hundred has been worst hit by the poor weather, with four washouts from nine fixtures so far. But while the favourites, Southern Brave at 7/2, have won two of their three games, they are currently being held off top spot by surprise packages Welsh Fire (5/1). Led by England batter Tammy Beaumont, Fire saw their opening game abandoned without a ball bowled, then travelled to Brave and not only scored the second-highest total in the women’s competition but became the first visiting side to leave the Ageas Bowl with victory. Another upset, beating defending champions, Oval Invincibles, away from home on Sunday means Fire have five points from a possible six.

Brave may take some stopping, though. They have the top three run-scorers so far, with India batter Smriti Mandhana (7/4) putting daylight between herself and most of the chasing pack. Opening partner Danni Wyatt is not far behind, and second favourite at 7/2, while Nat Sciver-Brunt is 11/2, having showcased her power in Trent Rockets’ opening defeat to Brave. Lauren Winfield-Hill almost became the first batter to carry their bat in the Hundred in Invincibles’ defeat to Fire and could be attractive at 25/1 while Heather Knight (20/1) and Deandra Dottin (25/1) will be among those hoping to make an impact in the coming days, with London Spirit and Manchester Originals both yet to get on the park.

The Ashes are gone for another series, drowned in the Old Trafford rains with England left frustrated after making all the running over the first three days of the fourth Test. But there’s still a proud home record to defend – Australia have not won a series in England since 2001, which means there’s plenty of pride to fight for in the fifth and final Test at the Kia Oval.

And perhaps for that reason, England are still considered favourites by the odd-setters at Bet365, though not by much… the hosts are 13/10 to win the match and square the series at 2-2, compared to Australia’s price of 13/8. The draw is where the most value resides at 3/1, although England don’t really do draws in the Bazball era. It required the loss of 150 overs at Old Trafford to condemn that game to its watery grave. Although the weather in London for this coming week isn’t the greatest either…

England have already named their team for the final Test, and it’s an unchanged XI, which means another outing for the veteran James Anderson, whose slender returns have been one of the talking points of the series. He turns 41 midway through the match, but you cannot write off quality, even when it’s been restricted to four wickets at 76.75. For that reason he’s still priced at a competitive 13/2 to be the leading wicket-taker in the match.

The market leader, at 4/1, is England’s rocket-man Mark Wood, who looked their likeliest route to victory at Old Trafford until the rain thwarted his impact. Two extra days of rest will have helped ensure he comes out firing on all cylinders once again at The Oval. Perhaps the more interesting punts revolve around the spinners on each team. Australia are expected to recall Todd Murphy (10/1) after an under-used display at Headingley, while Moeen Ali (12/1) has also picked up some useful wickets in the course of the series. If the Oval surface proves to be flat, and the sun comes out at any stage, both men may come into play.

At this late stage of the series, there are some tired bodies and minds doing the rounds. Australia’s captain, Pat Cummins, endured one of his most chastening Tests of all time at Old Trafford, where Zak Crawley in particular climbed onto the offensive, and he’s about to embark on his sixth Test in less than two months. You can get bet-boosted odds of 5/1 on him being the leading wicket-taker in England’s first innings, but even those might be a touch on the slender side if Crawley is in another of his moods.

Crawley himself is 8/1 to be England’s first-innings top-scorer, which is perhaps reflective of his tendency towards hit-and-miss displays. However, in this series he is the leading run-scorer on either side, with 385 runs at 55.00, and has hit upon a degree of consistency that has eluded him until now. He’s also 12/1 to be the Player of the Match, the same as Anderson in fact. Form may be temporary and class permanent, but Crawley has hit a vein of form that so far his illustrious team-mate has not been able to locate.

Two Tests to go in an epic Ashes series, and still it’s all up for grabs. England’s hopes looked pretty forlorn when they slumped to a 0-2 deficit with defeats at Edgbaston and Lord’s, but it was Baz to basics for the third Test at Headingley, where a thrilling three-wicket win left the equation pretty simple. Two more wins for England and the Ashes are coming home. One more slip-up – even a rain-affected draw – and Australia are keeping the urn for the fourth consecutive series since 2016-17.

And given such fine margins, the odds-setters at Bet365 aren’t taking many chances on a retention. A slender 1/6 says Australia do the needful, but an intriguing 4/1 for England to win back the Ashes, down from 12/1 last week, suggests that there’ll be more than just hope in the air at Old Trafford this week.

That said, there’s not much to separate the sides in the match victory stakes – 6/4 says an England win, 7/4 says Australia, with 12/5 splitting the difference on the draw. However, given the ten-day break between matches, and the chance that will have offered to Mark Wood to rest up and prepare to unleash another salvo of rockets on Australia’s batters, his bet-boosted odds of 10/1 to make it back-to-back Player-of-the-Match awards seems a tempting flutter.

The sense among the odds-setters, however, is that this particular contest could be won by the two outstanding batters on either side. Joe Root and Steve Smith have a century apiece in the series to date, and each of them is 7/1 to be Player of the Match this week.

James Anderson, back on his home ground and in potentially his penultimate Test, is 12/1 in the POTM stakes, but a more tempting option could be England’s lesser-sung hero from Headingley. Chris Woakes claimed three key wickets in each innings and sealed the match with a crucial unbeaten 32 in the run-chase. He’s 18/1 to be the game’s stand-out player, and in damp conditions that should suit his outstanding English-style seam bowling, don’t rule out another key contribution.

England are entering their Ashes last-chance saloon as the series heads for Headingley and Thursday’s third Test. There’s only been one team in Ashes history to come back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 – Don Bradman’s Australians in 1936-37 – and as a consequence, the odd-setters at Bet365 aren’t entirely optimistic on England’s behalf, despite considering them favourites for this particular match. Still, 12/1 for the mother of all comebacks, with Ben Stokes in the sort of mood he showed at Lord’s? It’s got to be worth a flutter…

It’s an opportune venue for another man of England’s moment. Yorkshire’s Jonny Bairstow was the aggrieved party after his controversial stumping on the final day at Lord’s, and as he’s shown in the past, he’s rarely more dangerous than when he’s got a point to prove. And he’s got ample happy memories at his home ground too, including his twin scores of 162 and 71 not out in another Bazball special against New Zealand last summer. At 14/1, he’s a very tempting price in the Player of the Match stakes.

And in keeping with England’s current approach to Test cricket, it’s been another six-laden series… 29 across the two Tests to date, including a whopping nine during Stokes’ 155 at Lord’s, the most in Ashes history. Stokes himself is 4/1 to continue to top that particular table at Headingley, although Australia’s Travis Head sneaks in as the market leader, at 10/3.

For Darren Gough, the Headingley Test promises to be a proud occasion, given his twin role as Yorkshire’s director of cricket. And with England desperate for a win, he is confident the home fans will rise to their team’s occasion.

“The Headingley Test matches are special,” Gough told ESPNcricinfo, in an appearance on behalf of Bet365. “It's the atmosphere that does it. Lord’s is purely about the occasion, but at Edgbaston and Headingley, the atmospheres are better than anywhere else.

“The pitches are pretty flat, especially if you look up and the sun is shining, but it rewards bowlers that can put the ball in the area consistently throughout the day. There’s such a fast outfield, a big square, if you don't get it right, England or Australia could easily score 450 in a day.

“If the sun's shining when you go to toss up at Headingley, you don't look at the pitch, you look up and decide what you're going to do. That's the only factor in a Test match there. That's why it's so exciting, you just don't know which way it's going to go.”

In the battle for the Ashes, all the buzz is about Bazball, and whether England’s supersonic batters can continue the free-wheeling displays that have driven their team to 11 Test wins in their last 13 outings. But over the course of a mouth-watering five-Test series, the fast-bowling stocks on each side could well be the deciding factor.

Who will last the course and emerge as the leading wicket-taker in the series? According to the odds-setters at Bet365, two men in particular stand out from the crowd – and this could well be because they are the likeliest men to feature in all five Tests of the series.

On the one hand there’s England’s Ollie Robinson, the “future GOAT” as his captain Ben Stokes recently described him. He’s only claimed 66 Test wickets to date, more than 600 fewer than his likely new-ball partner at Edgbaston, James Anderson, but they’ve come at an average of 21.27 and in all conditions too. And he’s a much fitter player than he was in Australia two winters ago. At 7/2, he’s the bookies’ favourite to claim the most scalps.

And hot on his heels in every sense is Australia’s spearhead, Pat Cummins, at 4/1. As the visiting captain, he will surely seek to front up in all five Tests as well, but even if he didn’t, his stellar strike-rate of 47.2 is proof of his threat every time he has the ball in his hand.

Anderson, entering his tenth Ashes campaign, is 5/1 to top the wicket charts, while Stuart Broad – also named for the Edgbaston Test – is 13/2. But perhaps the best of the outside bets is the recalled Moeen Ali, at 20/1. He hasn’t played Test cricket since 2021, but he’s been lured back by Bazball, a brand of cricket that is sure to play to his wicket-taking strengths. Yes, he’s liable to go for runs as well, but Stokes’ sole focus is on picking up every available wicket, every single innings. And to date, in his 13 Tests at the helm, his team has never yet come up short.

Presumably, in a Bazball summer, the batters will have their moments too. And no surprises that Joe Root (5/2) and Steve Smith (15/8) are the hot picks to score their team's first hundreds of the Ashes. Jonny Bairstow, England's man of last summer, is longer odds at 15/2, largely because he'll be coming in at No.7.