England to see off Zimbabwe

After Australia's defeat by Zimbabwe, surely anything is possible in the Twenty20 World Cup but Zimbabwe don't even have a night to celebrate their famous win with England arriving in Cape Town for their opening match of the tournament.

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Zimbabwe performed superbly to upset the tournament favourites, keeping their heads in the tense final stages of the run chase to get over the finish line and throw the tournament wide open.

But, and it's a big but, Australia's batsmen were awful and the result was less an indication of Zimbabwe's strength than evidence that Australia are beatable and that in this format, anything can happen.

That said, I'd be mightily surprised if England let Zimbabwe make it a famous double by beating them at Newlands.

Bet365 make England 1/12, with Zimbabwe 6/1 and that has to be right because for all England's general problems in the limited overs forms of the game, they are still much better than Zimbabwe and a professional performance should be good enough.

They also come in with the confidence gleaned from a series win over India just last week so it will take something equally dramatic to upset them this time round.

Because Zimbabwe's attack is weak, there are some slight changes to the norm when it comes to the betting to be top England runscorer in this match.

Kevin Pietersen, usually the favourite, is just fourth favourite at 3/1. Pinch-hitter Matt Prior is the 5/2 favourite, while Darren Maddy and Luke Wright are 11/4.

Behind them, there is a big gap to captain Paul Collingwood at 7/1, with Owais Shah and Vikram Solanki 8/1 and Andrew Flintoff 14/1.

For Zimbabwe, Vusi Sabanda is favourite at 4/1, just ahead of Chamu Chibhabha, at 9/2. Hamilton Masakadza and Brendon Taylor are both 5/1, while Tatenda Taibu and Sean Williams are both 11/2.

Please note that odds are correct at time of publication and are subject to change.