England look to finish in style

Australia duly got their act together to win the fourth one-day international and though the outcome of the series may be already decided, in England's favour, both sides will be keen to finish on a high by winning Saturday's final match.

For Australia, a 3-2 defeat will feel a lot better than 4-1 and they will want to maintain momentum going into the Test series against Pakistan. For England, they just want to keep winning and that makes for an even more interesting encounter.

Bet365 make the Aussies slight favourites at 8/11, while you can get on England at 11/10. I make it absolutely a 50-50 match so that means that England are slightly better value at 11/10.

Kevin Pietersen, who has yet to catch fire in the series, is nevertheless 10/3 joint favourite, along with his captain Andrew Strauss. Craig Kieswetter, another due a big score, is 4/1, with Eoin Morgan 9/2, Paul Collingwood 11/2 and Ian Bell 7/1.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting and opener Shane Watson are joint favourites for their team at 3/1, while Shaun Marsh and Michael Clarke are both 4/1, Tim Paine is 9/2 and Cameron White is 6/1. Michael Hussey is 8/1.

Original preview
The Australians are here and a five-match one-day series begins on Tuesday, with bragging rights and places to be earned ahead of the real business this winter when the Ashes series begins Down Under.

The series is being played to give Australia a decent warm-up for the series of Tests they are going to play against Pakistan in England, a series moved because of security and safety fears in Pakistan itself,

Australia will have one eye on the Tests but they would still like nothing else than to put England back in their box after the home side's recent World Twenty20 triumph. That win has little bearing on the more traditional one-day game, other than to offer England a big boost in their confidence in a format for which they have been lacking for too long.

The first match in the series is scheduled to be played on June 22 and bet365 make the Aussies the favourites to win the series at 4/7, while England are 11/8. Those prices haven't changed one bit in the past 10 days.

The other reason that this series means a little extra is that it offers many players the chance to show that they can get the job done against the best team in the world and that they should be on the plane to Australia this winter.

As said, England have been poor at the 50-over format of the game for years now but there have been encouraging signs of improvement of late, thanks in no small part to the introduction of some far more attacking batsmen at the top of the order.

Specifically, the arrival of Craig Kieswetter as an opening batsman/wicket-keeper, in that order, has transformed the pace of the England innings from pedestrian to far more respectable. Andrew Strauss comes back into the side as captain and the rest of the England team pretty much picks itself, injuries apart.

Australia have a couple of injury problems of their own, with Mitchell Johnson already ruled out, to be replaced by Josh Hazlewood, and wicket-keeper Brad Haddin also out.

The tourists will nevertheless be favourites to win the series, mainly because they have been and still are the world's best and most consistent one-day side. Not only have they won the past three World Cups, they have won more than two thirds of their one-dayers over the past two years.

The Aussies won the last series in England 6-1, but that can be partly explained by the fact that England had already won the Ashes and didn't really care about the one-dayers. They have lost only three series away from home in the past five years and two of them were by South Africa.

England, on the other hand, have lost half of their past 10 one-day series at home, so history is not exactly in their favour.

Momentum is a great thing, though, and the thought of another win over the Aussies should be enough to get Kevin Pietersen and co up for the fight, so I can see England sneaking this one, with the 11/8 not a bad price.