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Featured Sport News

England target series victory

Author: Sir David Smith
Date: 13/05/2009

Betting favourites England have a superb opportunity to wrap up a series victory when they take on the West Indies in the second Test starting on Thursday.

When the two sides lock horns at the Riverside, England are overwhelming favourites in the cricket betting stakes as they romped to a ten-wicket victory in the first Test at Lord's last week.

Andrew Strauss' side secured the win within three days against a woefully under-prepared Windies outfit.

That first game saw the England selectors get a number of major decisions right, especially over the selection of Ravi Bopara to bat at number three in place of the likes of Ian Bell, Owais Shah and Michael Vaughan.

Bopara responded by making 143 in the home side's first inning, guiding them to a total of 377 all out which proved almost good enough to earn an innings victory.

Bopara's excellence was matched by Durham seamer Graham Onions, who marked his Test debut by taking seven wickets, including 5-38 in the tourists' first innings.

Off-spinner Graham Swann also enhanced his growing international reputation by snapping up six wickets and hitting an unbeaten half-century.

However, it was not all good news for England, who were lucky in their first innings that the West Indies spilled six catches in one session of play to let them off the hook.

Against a stronger side - let's say the Australians later this summer - they may not be so fortunate.

Concerns over the batting strength have been addressed by the addition of Bell to the squad for this week, while the bowling options have been bolstered by the recall of the fit-again Ryan Sidebottom.

However, if England have some concerns, the West Indies have a catalogue of headaches to contend with.

Their three batting linchpins - Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul - all failed twice at Lord's, with Gayle's first-innings knock of 28 the most major contribution.

Added to that, Swann continued to hold the Indian sign over opener Devon Smith to the extent that he actually opened the bowling in the first innings, meaning that the tourists cannot be assured of making a competitive total.

Their bowling was a little more promising, especially given the sustained hostility shown by Fidel Edwards, who took 6-92 in England's first innings.

His figures could have been even better had several of the missed chances not occurred off his fiery pace.

Australian coach John Dyson must be pondering changes after the Lord's debacle, but in truth the Windies squad has little or no quality back-up and the same players are likely to feature in the main.

Even more doom for the Windies comes with the knowledge that on their last tour of England they lost a Test match by seven wickets at the Riverside.

Somehow they need to reverse that outcome, but the omens do not look good for the men from the Caribbean.

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