The series may have already been wrapped up by the home side but there is still one ODI to play and England will be desperate to salvage some pride although it does not look like they will be able to in all honesty.
The series started so brightly for the tourists, winning the first match with some exhilarating batting but the top order have barely been able to get out of first gear since, save some flashes from Kevin Pietersen and Joe Root in Mohali which were ultimately in another fairly convincing losing cause.
Whether batting first or second the English batsmen have largely struggled in India and although the bowlers haven’t really been great either it is the lack of runs that have really cost Alistair Cook’s men.
The conditions for the fifth ODI in Dharmasala will be unique for India if indeed the match goes ahead there given the amount of snow they have had in the area. It is hard to say which team the conditions will suit given that international cricket has never been played there before and although the natural reaction is to think colder conditions will suit the English there is no real evidence to support this.
India are 4/7 across the board for the win and that is actually quite a generous price for a team that has won the last three matches pretty comfortably. If you happen to have a large pile of money sitting around not doing very much then it may be worth bashing it on the hosts, but if you haven’t got said wad then we will have to find some value elsewhere in the markets.
Whilst India’s batsmen have been better than their opposition on the whole, their openers have not necessarily been that impressive and England are rightly favourites to score the highest opening partnership. They are still at a best price of 10/11 with Bet Victor for Ian Bell and Alistair Cook to outscore their Indian counterparts and while this is still obviously odds-on it is not a bad bet given Cook’s form especially in the last contest.
Cook is still the favourite to be England’s top batsman in the last contest of the tour but undoubtedly the form batsman over recent games has been young Joe Root who’s 57 off 45 balls in the last clash was truly scintillating. He is still as long as 6/1 with to be the highest scorer in the English team and of all the bets on offer this probably looks the best value.
