England shortened for Lord's win

The nature and relative ease of England's victory in the first NatWest Challenge match has caused the bookmakers to re-evaluate their assessment of the two sides going into the second of the three-match series at Lord's on Sunday.

Having made England 6/4 (2.50) for the opener at Headingley, bet365 have cut the hosts to 11/10 (2.10), while Australia can be backed at 4/6 (1.66), having been 1/2 for the first clash.

England fans are not ones to get too carried away by the odd one-day victory over the Aussies, and we've highlighted here many times that one-day succss does not necessarily translate to joy in the Test arena.

However, something is going on with Australia that we haven't seen for many a year - they are lacking confidence. A couple of their players are short of form, notably Jason Gillespie, and England, for once, are taking advantage. Should England win at Lord's on Sunday - and they haven't beaten them in successive one-day matches since 1997 - Australia could be the longest price for the Ashes that they've been all summer.

That would probably prompt the serious gamblers to get involved on Australia, but the way things are going, the Ashes could be slipping from their grasp.