Can India or Sri Lanka stop Australia?

After a tepid Twenty20 match, Australia and India now take on each other again in a triangular one-day series. The series started on Sunday with an abandoned match between the two and the next match sees Sri Lanka and India clashing on Tuesday.

On home soil, Australia will of course take some beating and are unsurprisingly the favourites at 1/3 (1.33) for overall victory. However, as always with these traingular series, it is hardly worth backing them until they get to the best-of-three match finals.

As a result, in pure price terms alone, it's worth backing both India at 9/2 and Sri Lanka at 5/1 as whichever of the two gets to the final will be much shorter for victory then - perhaps offering the chance to hedge - and more importantly, gives them a much better chance of winning the competition.

Obviously Australia have the best side on paper. Having won the past three World Cups, you would not expect anything other than that. Led by Ricky Ponting, they have explosive batsmen, top bowlers and are a superb fielding side, putting them head and shoulders above the others.

India are much changed from their Test side that performed so well against the Aussies, and may take some time to gel again, though they are well capable of winning against them, at least on a one-off occasion.

Sri Lanka, on the other hand, have the tough task of settling into the surroundings and finding their form quickly enough to compete. They are a talented bunch but may not be quite as good as they once were.

Top team batsman
Ponting and Matt Hayden, arguably the most destructive batsmen in the series, are joint favourites to be the top overall batsman, at 5/1. As with any one-day competition, the top batsman almost always comes from the top three in the order, partly because they have the most overs, in theory, to bat.

Sachin Tendulkar, in great form and sure to open the batting for India, is a tempting price at 13/2, while Adam Gilchrist, who will want to go out on a high in his last series before retiring from international cricket, is the same price.

Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara is next at 17/2, but as I said, he may take some time to get used to the conditions, while Mahela Jayawardene, for whom the same applies, is 11/1.

Others of note include Virender Sehwag, at 12/1 and the old warhorse Sanath Jayasuriya, at 14/1.

Top bowlers
Brett Lee continues to go from strength to strength and he is the clear favourite to be the top wicket-taker in the series. Bet365 make him 3/1 and since he is in great form, that's probably fair.

Muttiah Muralitharan, always a massive threat but perhaps less so in one-day cricket, is next at 11/2 alongside Australia left-armer Nathan Bracken. Mitchell Johnson is 13/2 and Lasith Malinga is 17/2.

Don't be surprised if Sreesanth has a good series, though. The fast bowler is one of the most enjoyable bowlers to watch these days and if he gets it right, his price of 12/1 could seem very generous come the end of the series.

Obviously, when picking the top batsmen and bowlers, it's important to go for someone in a team that you expect to get to the final.