/ Michael Vaughan / 05 January 2011 /

Michael Vaughan tells us who is his Man Of The Series, why Australia have at least one positive to take out of this year's Ashes and gives us his last two wagers to follow.

Australia missed a great chance yesterday to try and level the series - simple as that. Early on the conditions were very good for bowling and Alastair Cook, despite being on 60-odd, had to start again and play himself in just as you do at the start of any day at the crease. They bowled the wrong line, the wrong length and didn't give themselves the best chance of taking wickets. In other words, they let Michael Clarke down. And that's the biggest area of concern surrounding this Australian team going forward, they just don't look like they have the bowlers who can consistently bowl in the right areas and consistently take wickets. And that's why, going into day four, they find themselves in a position where it will be almost impossible for them to win the match and will probably end up losing it when they should really have been in the driving seat. If only they'd bowled well yesterday.

For what it's worth, I was quite impressed with young Michael Beer, who kept things tight and didn't seem too daunted by the occasion. Australia need to stick with him now and give him a decent run in the side rather than chopping and changing. I've said before that I thought Nathan Hauritz had a role to play in this Series but the Selectors thought otherwise and they'll have had their reasons for that but if Hauritz doesn't have the right profile, they have to decide which spinner they're going to put their faith in and like I say, Beer looks their best bet at the minute.

England will be positive first thing tomorrow morning. Firstly because they already have a lead of more than 200, secondly because all the players that are still going to bat are aggressive stroke-makers and thirdly because England will be thinking about winning the game rather than drawing it. Conditions yesterday afternoon were probably the best for batting that we'll see in this Test but when Australia bat again they'll have to contend with Chris Tremlett finding uneven bounce and Graeme Swann turning it on a wearing pitch. I wouldn't be at all surprised if England bowled them out for around 200.

One of the few positives for Australia to have come out of the Series is Usman Khawaja. Ok, so we've only seen him bat once and he fell short of a half-century but sometimes you can just tell if you think someone is made for Test cricket or not and this lad looks the part. He'll be desperate to make a good impression on his debut and is the call for top Australian batsman in the second innings at around [6.0]. The dangerman as regards our bet could be Shane Watson, who has actually looked pretty good but for whatever reason just hasn't converted his starts into big scores.

That's something you certainly can't accuse Alastair Cook of, who for my money has been the Man Of The Series. I won't go as far as saying he's been the only difference between the two sides because I think England are stronger in quite a few areas but if you took halved Cook's runs in the Series I think you'd find this would have been a pretty level contest. Any Test captain in the world will tell you that's it's big hundreds that win you Test matches and Cook deserves a big pat on the back from Andrew Strauss for the role he's played over the last month and a half.

The Australia win is pretty much out of the question and I'm not sure this batting line-up is good enough to face England's bowlers on a pitch that will still do something and bat for long enough to salvage a draw. It's not the most adventurous wager in the world but [1.48] on England finishing the Series on a high looks worth snapping up.

Recommended Bets:

Back Usman Khawaja to be Australia second innings top batsman at [6.0]
Back England to win the Fifth Test at [1.48]

'.$sign_up['title'].'

'; } } ?>

:

:

:

?

: