Sixth ODI Result: World Cup looks bleak for England after fifth loss

England / Jamie "The Pacman" Pacheco / 02 February 2011 /

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Paul collingwood needs to find some form as England's key all-rounder if they're to mount a serious challenge

"Australia are the 1.79 favourites to rub further salt into the wound by winning the last ODI but perhaps more significantly, the market seems to have lost faith in England's World Cup chances and eased them out to 8.0 from a price of around 5.7 at the end of the Ashes."

England lost to Australia once again and are now 5-1 down in the Series. All that optimism ahead of the World Cup in the aftermath of the Ashes now looks very misplaced...

England blew a fantastic chance to save some face in what has been a disastrous ODI Series so far by allowing Australia to successfully chase down 333 to win the 6th ODI.

The tourists got off to the best possible start by winning the toss and choosing to bat, an obvious decision given the perceived difficulty of batting under lights at the ASCG which had been highlighted by betting.betfair columnist Michael Vaughan.

And things improved for England as Andrew Strauss and Matt Prior got off to a decent start and Jonathan Trott scored his second century of the Series with a superb knock of 137 off just 126 deliveries. The rest of the middle order also made valuable contributions through Kevin Pietersen (29), Ian Bell (45) and Eoin Morgan (21), the latter two scoring at better than a run a ball. England traded at a market low of [1.16] during their innings and a score of more than 350 looked on the cards at one stage.

Unfortunately for Strauss it somehow wasn't enough. Openers Shane Watson and Brad Haddin also got their side off to a decent start whilst the very daring promotion of Mitchell Johnson, who came in at no.4, proved to be an inspired decision from skipper Michael Clarke after the burly left-hander scored 57 off 59 to keep Australia up with the necessary run rate.

Callum Ferguson also made a handy contribution scoring 46, but the real star of the run chase was the much-maligned Michael Clarke, playing the archetypal captain's knock, with 82 off 70 balls. The former Hampshire man has been regarded as an unpopular choice amongst the Australian public to replace Ricky Ponting as Test captain and has been out of form for much of this Series, just as he was during the Ashes, but came good when under serious presure. In the end Australia chased down England's score with two wickets and four balls to spare.

Australia are the [1.79] favourites to rub further salt into the wound by winning the last ODI but perhaps more significantly, the market seems to have lost faith in England's World Cup chances and eased them out to [8.0] from a price of around [5.7] at the end of the Ashes.

Australia's impressive performances during the Series has seen them cut to [6.6] but India remain the team everyone has to beat. They're the [4.4] favourites and given they're on home soil and can boast more world-class performers than anyone else in their squad right now, few would argue they don't deserve to be the pre-tournament jollies.

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