India look to level series

A decent performance and a bit of rain and all of a sudden the one-day series is alive again, with India reducing their deficit to 3-2 with two matches remaining. And the tourists will be hoping to carry over their momentum by winning the sixth match, at the Oval on Wednesday.

Perhaps it is an indictment of one-day cricket these days or simply the fact that there is very little between the two teams, but picking the winners of these matches is proving to be more and more difficult.

England played pretty well in defeat and though bet365 initially couldn't split the two sides for match six, making them both 5/6, they have now cut England to 4/5, with India slight outsiders at even money.

The home side have won 16 of the 27 one-dayers they have played at the Oval but just two of the past five and though they seem to be improving, there is nothing to be ultra-confident about, especially with Andrew Flintoff still nursing an injury and Ravi Bopara out with a broken thumb.

Instead, India have the momentum and really the emphasis will be on them to play attacking cricket and try to win the match to set up a decider.

As usual, Kevin Pietersen is favourite to top-score for England at 11/4, while Ian Bell is 7/2 and Alastair Cook 9/2. Paul Collingwood, the top-scorer in match five, Matt Prior and Owais Shah are all 6/1.

Sachin Tendulkar is the 3/1 favourite to be India's top runscorer, just ahead of captain Rahul Dravid and former skipper Sourav Ganguly, both of whom are 7/2.

If you are looking for a slightly bigger price, Yuvraj Singh looks to be finding some nice form and is 5/1, the same price as Robin Uhappa, with Gautam Gambhir next at 11/2.

It's tough to offer a strong tip on this one but if I had to pick one I'd probably say take India at 8/11 to have the better opening partnership again. Ganguly and Tendulkar are both sniffing big scores and are in good nick, so trust them not to fall early.