England v Australia
The one day tournament starts today and the first of a five match series is being played at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton. England won a brilliantly entertaining series 3-2 against World Cup runners up New Zealand at the start of the summer and they will hope to build on that by putting up a good show against the world champions here.
Since the world cup debacle England have transformed the way they approach limited overs matches. Even if they lose early wickets the plan is just to keep on attacking. This saw them score over 400 for the first time ever in a 50 over match in the first game of that series and it was what really set the tone for the rest of it.
There are players on either side that have been rested after taking part in the Ashes tests earlier in the summer. For England, Joe Root is rested and the two main pace bowlers Anderson and Broad look unlikely to take part in limited overs cricket going forward. The Aussies have sent Mitchell Johnson and Josh Hazelwood home to rest, usual one day captain Aaron Finch is injured and excellent all rounder James Faulkner has not been selected after his driving ban. These are big players for Australia and I think it hands England a bit of an advantage.
This will give the chance for some of the Australian youngsters to impress and one that really caught the eye in the twenty twenty international played on Monday night was Pat Cummins. He's had his fair share of injuries for a young guy, he's just 22, but he looked fit and strong there with his speeds pushing the mid nineties which is seriously rapid. He is 6/1 to be the top bowler of the series and with the way England have struggled against real pace in the past, I think this is a good bet.
Alex Hales is being mentioned as a possible test opening batsman so how he handles the Aussie pace bowlers here will be extremely important. He has had a fantastic season for Notts scoring plenty of runs in all formats and we can back him to be England's top batsman in this series at 15/4.
The overall series itself is priced us as Australia best price 8/15 and England 7/4. I think these look about right considering the two squads and don't see any value in looking to play here.
Haydock 16:40
This is a strong looking class two handicap over eleven furlongs and the betting shows the it is quite a competitive race.
Chancery is top weight and has some relatively good form, however I feel he is better over a couple of furlongs shorter.
Penhill is undoubtedly a good horse but he doesn't appear to be the easiest to get right and he couldn't quite get his head in front last time in an easier race at Pontefract. He's been raised two pounds for that effort so I think he may find one or two too good here.
I am going to take a chance on the three year old from Mark Johnston's yard Salieris Mass. He won his debut race at Ripon beating a heavily odds on favourite before coming up short on his handicap debut at Newmarket. Three year olds have won the last five renewals of this race and I don't think it will take a massive improvement for Salieris to take this. Being the only three year old in the race he is receiving at least eight pounds from all of his rivals and with natural progress expected I think he is an each way bet to nothing if all eight runners stand their ground.
Today's Selections
Pat Cummins top bowler in the series - 1 point @ 6/1
Alex Hales top England batsman in the series - 1 point @ 15/4
Haydock 16:40 Salieris Mass - 1 point each way @ 4/1 (Ladbrokes are paying 1/4 odds)