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England and India begin the final part of the English summer this weekend when they meet in a One Day International in Durham.
The two teams will compete in five 50-over matches with England looking to continue their dominance and India hoping to finish what has been a miserable tour on a positive note.
England of course stormed to a 4-0 victory in the test series, becoming the No.1 side in the world in the process. It was a humiliating few weeks for the Indians as they failed to put up a fight against Andrew Strauss’ men.
Then, most recently, England secured yet another victory over India. This time, it was a Twenty20 international win.
Led by Stuart Broad, the hosts won by six wickets with Jade Dernbach and Eoin Morgan the stand out performers. For India, they were once again left regretting a batting collapse.
Overall, this means England go into this weekend’s first ODI match in positive mood. They hammered India under Andrew Strauss, secured victory under Stuart Broad and will be aiming to do so again under Alastair Cook.
In the one series since being named permanent England ODI captain, Cook guided his team to a 3-2 series victory over Sri Lanka earlier this summer and he would love a repeat result against the Indians.
MS Dhoni’s men are expected to be much more competitive in this form after all, so victory for Cook’s England would represent a significant scalp for the progress of the ODI side.
As for the team England are likely to play in Saturday’s match, they will be without Kevin Pietersen who is being rested for the entire series, so it will be left to Craig Keiswetter, Eoin Morgan and Ravi Bopara to add some aggression to the batting line-up.
In the bowling department, Dernbach is likely to keep his place in the side after impressing against India in the Twenty20 match as well as against Sri Lanka earlier this summer.
As for India, they are struggling with injuries once again. Gautam Gambhir was the latest player to withdraw, joining Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Virender Sehwag on the sidelines.
Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and MS Dhoni are once again likely to be their key men as they aim to lift themselves for this five match series.
Match odds
After dominating their opponents all summer, England are favourites for victory on Saturday with odds of 1.61 (61/100)@ Betfair. You can back India for their first win over England of the tour at 2.29 (129/100).
This first match could influence the rest of the series of course. If England win, India’s morale is likely to drop fairly quickly, while a win for the tourists could trigger a well overdue resurgence.
Top batsman
England captain Alastair Cook was in fine form during the latter part of the test series and he is expected to bring this into the ODI matches. He can be backed at 4.23 (323/100) to be England’s leading runscorer.
AS for India, Sachin Tendulkar is unsurprisingly favourite to lead the way for them and can be backed at 4.14 (157/50) as he continues his search for his 100th international century.
India captain MS Dhoni is interestingly available at 9.00 (8/1)@ Betfair, something which might be worth considering given the form he showed towards the end of the test series.
Recommended bet
England to win @ 1.61 (61/100)
MS Dhoni to be India’s leading runscorer at 9.00 (8/1)
