England go in with confidence

After England's historic victory in the one dayers, spread punters can now turn their attention to the Test series starting on Wednesday 16th December at the SuperSport Park at Centurion.

Spread buyers looking to get with England will be hoping that confidence remains sky-high after becoming only the third nation to win an ODI series in South Africa, as buyers of their win index spread for the opener count on a fast start in the first of four matches in the Test format.

They will have been hugely encouraged after some dominant form from key players in the shorter format. Paul Collingwood was voted man-of-the-series after his match winning performance here in Centurion so spread betting enthusiasts looking to get behind England will be hoping he can build on his impressive form already shown at the ground.

Spread punters looking at England's record in Centurion will see that they have played there only three times, winning once and drawing twice. Sellers of South Africa's win index spread (25 points for a win, 10 points for a draw) will have taken note of this impressive record, and that England were the only team to beat them in their last 14 matches at the ground.

However, the Proteas have won their last five matches here, beating Pakistan, New Zealand and Bangladesh. All five of those victories were also by a comfortable margin - the largest being an innings and 59 runs against New Zealand - which will give confidence to buyers of their first innings supremacy.

Punters looking for a spread bet on the total team runs will be interested to learn that the top single innings score recorded at the ground was in 2004 as South Africa took on the West Indies: the home side managed 604 before declaring.

Spread sellers of England's runs will have noticed that their highest total at Centurion came in 1995 where they racked-up 381. The Proteas accumulated 543 runs from both innings the last time the sides met at Centurion and England managed 432 in the same match as the game fizzled out to a draw.

Followers of the player series markets will have been looking at the form of the current squad and any injury concerns. Kevin Pietersen has so far struggled for runs during this tour and has been subject to the familiar abuse from home fans. Buyers of his series runs spread will be hoping he can get back to his strong Test form against his country of birth. Against South Africa he averages 60 from four matches while his highest score is 152.

Sellers of Andrew Strauss' runs in the individual games, and the series, will be wary of the fact he averages 52.25 from his nine matches against the Proteas and his top score is an impressive 147.

Jacques Kallis is rated as 50/50 for the first Test and Sporting Index's traders supporting the tourists on the spreads will hope he doesn't make it. The all-rounder has scored 1,516 runs at 40.97 and taken 44 wickets in 24 Tests against England.

Spread bettors looking at Sporting Index's 100-ups market will note that in the last Test between these sides in Centurion, not one English player managed to get past 100 runs. Two South African batsmen got past 100 in the same match but only did so by nine and 36 runs.