McGrath set for final hurrah

Glenn McGrath has defied all those people who said he was too old and that his impact on the competition would not be that great with a superb, consistent bowling performance throughout.

The ageing paceman has taken a record 25 wickets - a phenomenal haul - especially as he has often been bowling at first change when some of the hardness has been knocked out of the ball.

His nagging line, extra bounce and unerring consistency makes him a threat again and he will be absolutely determined to end his career on a high with a third straight World Cup triumph.

Bet365 have their usual plethora of markets on a match like this and the one I like is that McGrath will score 40 points or more on their performance market.

This offers 20 points per wicket taken, 10 per catch and one per run scored. Now, he probably won't have to bat and he is unlikely to get many runs anyway but he is always capable of snaffling a catch.

More importantly, he is more than likely to take two wickets in his 10 overs, not least because he has done just that in nine of his 10 matches in the competition this time round.

At 4/6, (1.66) he is rock solid value and there are few bets I would put ahead of this in the final, where so many things can go wrong.

Muttiah Muralitharan is a wizard with the ball and he will cause Australia's batsmen problems. He is the obvious favourite to take the most wickets for his team, but at 9/4, Lasith Malinga could be the better value.

The slinger has caused everyone problems in the World Cup and continues to take wickets against every side. With the Barbados pitch likely to offer him some help in terms of pace and bounce, he could be the one to watch.