Trading Talk - WI v Eng Final Test

As England's final test of the series against the West Indies approaches, you can't blame the players if their minds are not entirely on the match ahead. Still, the show must go on, and although England will not claim a series win over the West Indies (to the disappointment of buyers of England's series win index spread at the start of February), England will be keen to impress in advance of the summer's Ashes series.

England once again start as favourites for the test at 12-13.5 on the win index spread (25pts for a win, 10 for a draw) to the West Indies' 9.5-11. Sellers of the England spread will be hoping that the match goes the way of the previous two at least (both draws), and will also feel safe that England have not managed a win in the whole series.

Buyers of England will be confident that their batsmen seem to have found a certain level of form, with Strauss, Collingwood, Bopara and Cook each recording centuries in the last two Tests.

In the player spread markets, the Sporting Index traders will be keeping a particularly close eye on Alistair Cook now he has broken the mental barrier of scoring a first test century since 2007. His total runs spread is 78-85 with a ton-up spread of 8-11. In the last test, his total runs score was 233, and his ton-up total, 39. Captain Andrew Strauss, who has scored two centuries so far in the series, has a spread of 85-92, and might attract attention from buyers.

The complaints about the pitch in the last Test now seem trivial, but with first innings scores of 600-6 and 749-9 there's no denying the Kensington Oval proved to be a batsman's dream. Buyers of the match ton-ups spread for the upcoming match, currently at 83-90 (combined number of runs over 100 for each player), will be hoping the Queen's Park Oval plays the same way.

Perhaps sellers of England's ton-ups spread (at 47), and indeed sellers of England's win index spread remember a disastrous two days for English cricket back in March 1994 - it was on this very ground that England collapsed to a second-innings total of 46, their second lowest score ever.

Since that test, the teams have played three times at Port-of-Spain, with England claiming victory twice, including at the most recent test in 2004. Buyers of England's first innings supremacy at 30-50 runs might be interested to see how these previous matches unfolded, and should be encouraged that England's largest supremacy in these three matches was 111 but according to the average England supremacy of 40 runs over those three games, it seems Sporting Index's traders have got the spread about right.

Looking at the equivalent supremacies for the current series (excluding the abandoned second test) the supremacy favours England by an average of 58, although sellers of the spread will point to the 149 run first-innings supremacy last time for the West Indies.