England v Australia
The series might already have a winner but pride is always at stake when England face Australia and the fifth One Day International at Lord's between the great rivals will be far more than a dead rubber for cricket fans and spread bettors.
Despite England's recent dominance over Australia, spread sellers of their supremacy for the final 50-over game of this series at the 'home of cricket' will know that they do not have the upper hand here. Of the eleven games between the sides at the London ground, the Aussies have won six to the home team's four. Moreover, these Sporting Index spread sellers of England's supremacy will know that the Baggy Green have won all of the last three ODIs here between the pair.
The first of this spell came in July 2005 when Ricky Ponting's men passed the Three Lions' total of 223 with seven wickets and 34 runs in hand. Spread punters looking at buying their win index will know that the next two victories in this streak were last year in a 6-1 ODI series mauling of their hosts. The first triumph saw England fall 39 runs short of the target set and, just six days later on Saturday 12th September, they went down again, this time thanks to Australia successfully chasing 220 with seven wickets and with 38 balls to spare.
Spread buyers of Ponting's runs this time out will know that he hit 111 - his highest knock on this particular oval - in the first of these three and another 48 in the most recent. Spread bettors looking for more encouragement to buy his runs will know that he averages 44.16 runs here from seven ODIs, although not all of them were against England. Sellers of runs spread will be going against a man who sits in tenth place in the all-time ODI Lord's list - just 21 behind his countryman Mark Waugh who has been his country's top runs gatherer here.
Paul Collingwood has played 12 of his 180 ODIs at Lord's. While spread buyers of his runs here will say that no other current teammate has more in St John's Wood for England than his total of 261 - or that he has a top score of 64 and three half-centuries to his name from those dozen appearances - his performance index spread sellers will point to an average of 29.00.
Not many of the bowlers on show from either nation have huge experience of the Lord's conditions, but spread buyers of Jimmy Anderson's performance index will be glad to see that he has 12 wickets from eight matches and will be looking for him to add to that total. In this same market, where runs, catches, wickets and stumpings count towards the total, spread sellers will be cautious of the fact that he has struck just twice in his past three ODIs here. They will be happy sellers if he doesn't bat - he hasn't on five occasions - or add to the total of just two runs he has accumulated in this period which came in one game.
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