New Zealand favoured against England

For the first time in what probably seems like an age, England will not have to deal with Australia when they take to the field for their second match in the Commonwealth Bank one-day series in Hobart on Tuesday. New Zealand, heavily beaten by the Aussies on Sunday, are the opponents and bet365 make the Black Caps 8/13 (1.61) to come out on top.

England, who were also easily beaten by the Australians in their opening match, are 6/5 for what would be the first win of their entire Tour, a pretty sorry statistic.

If that's to happen, though, they will need to overcome the loss of Kevin Pietersen, who has returned home after fracturing his rib. His absence is sure to be tough for England, but at least the New Zealanders will not present quite as big a threat.

That said, Stephen Fleming's side performed pretty well in their first match on Sunday, pegging back the run-rate until Andrew Symonds and Cameron White took the attack back to them in the latter part of their innings.

This has the makings of a tight contest, not least because of their 54 one-day matches against each other, they have won 25 apiece.

Only 10 of those have come on neutral ground, with New Zealand winning six and England just four.

Recent form would also go against England as they have won just five of their past 20 matches, compared to New Zealand's record of 12 wins in their past 20 games is not at all bad.

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In Pietersen's absence, bet365 have found it pretty hard to split as many as eight players in the betting to be England's top runscorer.

For all his relatively poor form on tour, Andrew Strauss shades favouritism at 7/2, while captain Michael Vaughan is next at 4/1. Ian Bell and Andrew Flintoff are both 5/1, while Paul Collingwood is 11/2, Ed Joyce 6/1 and Ravinder Bopara, the man called up to replace Pietersen, a 13/2 chance. Jamie Dalrymple is 7/1.

For New Zealand, captain Fleming is 3/1 favourite to come out on top, while the ever-dangerous Nathan Astle and Brendon McCullum are 4/1. Ross Taylor is 5/1, Peter Fulton is 11/2 and Craig McMillan and Hamish Marshall are both 7/1.

If New Zealand are a decent bet for victory, then they are also pretty good value at 4/6 to outscore England in the first 10 overs of their respective innings. England seem to have forgotten how to attack at the top of the order and New Zealand have some more than capable batsmen.