England are the most marginal favourites for their must win fourth ODI against Sri Lanka at Trent Bridge on Wednesday. Only victory will do for Alastair Cook's side in the day-night match as they currently trail 2-1 in the best of five series, with William Hill pricing the home side as 4/5 odds on favourites, while Sri Lanka are available at evens.
It was the same old story in the third one dayer at Lord's as England's batting lineup failed to make the most of a glorious batting track at the home of cricket. Sri Lanka then showed their opponents how to do it as they cruised to victory and only England's captain Alastair Cook emerged with any credit.
Cook scored 119 off 143 balls to notch his first century as the one day leader and he is 10/3 to top score for England again this week. Cook has some big decisions to make as some of his leading players struggle for form, although Kevin Pietersen has vowed to return to his best after looking in fine touch during an all too brief 41 in the last match. Pietersen's last ODI hundred came back in 2008, but he remains a dangerous proposition and is available at tempting industry best odds of 4/1 to be top England batsman.
Of more immediate concern is the form of Stuart Broad, who has failed to take a wicket in the three matches so far, conceding 154 runs at 5.92 in the process. Broad is 7/2 to be top England bowler this week but it is very possible that the T20 captain could be dropped for the match at Trent Bridge, where he plies his trade with Nottinghamshire.
County teammate Samit Patel could replace him, although James Anderson looks the pick to be top England bowler at odds of 3/1 after taking seven wickets in his last two ODIs at Trent Bridge.
Sri Lanka meanwhile have no such worries as their batsman continue to excel, although captain Tillakaratne Dilshan will be keen to pick up some runs after two successive failures. But even without their dynamic opener scoring runs they have plenty of players capable of scoring centuries and WilliamHill.com go evens that a century is scored in Wednesday's match.
Mahela Jayawardene has been hugely impressive in notching up scores of 144 and 79 in his last two matches, and he is a tempting 3/1 to be top Sri Lanka batsman. The up-and-coming Dinesh Chandimal also came to the party on Wednesday as he picked up his second ODI hundred at Lord's and he can be backed at 9/2 to top score for Sri Lanka again this week.
The bowling attack have all been chipping in with wickets in the series, and the surprise package has been Suranga Lakmal. The medium pacer has taken seven wickets and could be worth a look at 7/2 to take the most wickets for Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka will certainly be the more confident of the two sides heading to Nottingham and they could seal the series come Wednesday night. England don't have the best of records at Trent Bridge, winning just two of the last five, including a win over Bangladesh last year, and they have it all to do.
England v Sri Lanka 4th ODI Tips
Tip #1: Sri Lanka to win the fourth ODI @ evens with WilliamHill.com
Tip #2: James Anderson to be top England bowler @ 3/1 with WilliamHill.com
Tip #3: Kevin Pietersen to be top England batsman @ 4/1 with WilliamHill.com
Match Betting
4/5 England
Evens Sri Lanka
Top England Batsman Odds
10/3 Alastair Cook
4/1 Jonathan Trott
4/1 Kevin Pietersen
9/2 Craig Kieswetter
5/1 Eoin Morgan
Top Sri Lanka Batsman Odds
3/1 Mahela Jayawardene
7/2 Tillakaratne Dilshan
4/1 Kumar Sangakkara
9/2 Dinesh Chandimal
11/2 Dimuth Karunaratne
Top England Bowler Odds
11/4 Graeme Swann
3/1 James Anderson
7/2 Stuart Broad
4/1 Tim Bresnan
9/2 Jade Dernbach
Top Sri Lanka Bowler Odds
15/8 Lasith Malinga
7/2 Suranga Lakmal
4/1 Nuwan Kulasekara
5/1 Suraj Randiv
5/1 Ajantha Mendis
All odds are supplied courtesy of WilliamHill.com, who provide several other betting markets, including live betting in-running, for the ODI Series between England and Sri Lanka.
Posted: Tuesday, 5th July 2011
Author: Chris James
Tags: england, sri lanka, kevin pietersen, william hill,
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