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India v England 3rd ODI Betting: We need to talk about Kevin...

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Ed Hawkins talks us through the betting for the 3rd ODI and looks at some of England's problems ahead of the match such as what to do if they win the toss and how to get Yuvraj Singh out.

We need to talk about Kevin. Whether that be his decision making at the coin toss, field settings or team selection, Kevin Pietersen and the vagaries of his brain are beginning to drive bettors to distraction.

With England on the brink of going 3-0 down in their seven-match one-day series against India in Kanpur early on Thursday, there is increasing evidence that even a drift to [3.00] may not be enough to convince punters to put Pietersen's foibles to the back of their minds.

India are [1.48] to win in the smog-filled city, which is the most polluted in the whole country and has brought tears to the eyes of visiting teams for more than one reason. India do not lose here that often. With only three defeats in history - and five wins from their last six - at wishful thinking Green Park, even Pietersen should be able to get his head around the task facing his team.

So what exactly has Pietersen done wrong since the series began? If we were being generous, we could forgive his decision to insert India in stifling heat in the first one-day international.

His tactics after reducing the home team to 29 for three in the eighth over in game two in Indore can not easily be exonerated. Pietersen, despite his promise to be a positive leader, took such a backward step that he may as well have been in the dressing room.

Instead of going for the kill, Pietersen set a packed offside field, his bowlers bowled straight and Yuvraj Singh and Gautam Gambhir were able to twiddle their bats to make use of the huge gaps in on the onside to take singles at will. Pietersen twiddled his thumbs.

More pressing is Pietersen's apparent insistence that England keep faith with the same team and batting order. Graeme Swann, whose tidy spin should be a threat on these surfaces, has been left out, Ravi Bopara is being wasted as low as No. 8 and Andrew Flintoff is too high at No. 5.

Indeed Flintoff's dismissal in the last match encapsulated England's biggest weakness in all one-day cricket, whether playing on the Asian sub-continent or the home counties: working the spinners into gaps.

Sure, Flintoff was able to use his brawn to get after Harbhajan Singh when the field was up but when it came back in again, he didn't have a clue and lasted only two balls before Yuvraj trapped him in front when Fred got himself into a terrible muddle desperately trying to manoeuvre the ball into space.

A solution to make England a more attractive proposition would be to move Paul Collingwood back to No. 5 and bring in Swann at No. 8 in place of either Bopara or Samit Patel. This sort of juggling could be beyond Pietersen, however.

What should not be is the nature of the wicket. In the past KP has said he is "hopeless" at reading pitches but one would have to be seriously challenged not to recognise that the Green Park strip was made for batting.

So good is it that four of the last five matches there have been won by the side chasing and the average first-innings score is a very healthy 231. Pietersen needs to tell his batsmen to go out to the middle and play without the restriction and tight muscles that a 2-0 reverse inevitably brings. If they bat with freedom and expression they should at some stage trade a lot shorter than they are now.

One problem that also needs to be solved is how to get Yuvraj out. With two centuries so far he would be defying the law of averages if he got another. But he could still hurt England. He smote a half-century against Pakistan on this ground last time out while Shahid Afridi smacked 102 off 46 balls there in 2005.

It is that sort of wicket. Batsmen who clear their minds of everything do well there. Kevin is [4.1] to top score for England.

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