England Cricket / Ralph Ellis / 17 August 2011 /

The Oval is a batting paradise and, for an Indian attack that's taken all 20 English wickets once this series, that is an intimidating thought says Ralph Ellis

The idea of this column is to have a look at what's been in the papers to see how it can guide you to find a winning bet. But there are times you can learn more from what's NOT been in the papers.

It's four days now since Andrew Strauss and his England team completed the innings win at Edgbaston which made them officially the best team in the world. Since then I've read lots of interviews about how they did it, lots about the way the back room staff have helped, lots about the individual players, and lots more about what's gone wrong with the Indians.

But nowhere, and I've scoured all the news and showbiz pages as well as sport, just to be sure, has there been any accounts of England cricketers falling out of nightclubs, sharing copious amounts of crystal champagne, or dancing the night away with nubile young ladies. There have not even been any tales of speeding tickets from test drives in fast cars.

It's significant if you remember the early stages of the winter's Ashes series. England had won the second Test in Adelaide by a ridiculous margin, and Kevin Pietersen had the loan of a Lamborghini arranged by Shane Warne and fell foul of the local law. He'd just made his career best 227, and felt invincible. By the time England arrived in Perth, KP was back in the slow lane making nought and three while the rest of the team also flopped. The players had all talked about keeping their focus after a big win, but didn't match words with deeds.

There were clearly lessons learned all round. As Graeme Swann points out today (now we're back to what IS in the papers), by the time that tour ended England's cricketers delayed any celebrations for securing the Ashes at Melbourne until they'd won by an innings and 83 runs in Sydney.

It all suggests the same mood will be taken to The Oval when the final encounter against the crumbling Indians comes tomorrow. On a wicket which always tends to be a batting paradise, and with sporadic rain forecast for the weekend, there's no guarantee that Strauss and Co. will complete a 4-0 series whitewash. But if they turn up with the right attitude, and everything suggests that will happen, they can't lose either.

The Indians have only once taken 20 wickets, at Trent Bridge when Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar briefly exploited friendly conditions, and even then it cost them a total of 765 runs. So they should be about [13.0] to win this game, the same sort of price Swansea were to win at Manchester City on Monday night. Instead they are [6.6] so if you want a boring bet with a pretty much guaranteed return you can lay that all day long.

The best value I can find, though, is to get just under even money (currently spread between [1.65] and [1.95]), for England to take a first innings lead. On a good wicket Strauss and co. will love the idea of only having to bat once, and with the mentality to grind opponents into the dust you feel that even if Tendulkar, Dravid and Sehwag do dig in to search for some respectability, whatever they do England will do better.

Five things you might not know about Ishant Sharma
1. Born September 1988 in Delhi, father Vijay is an air conditioning dealer. Mother's name is Grisha. He has a sister Eva who is an arts student

2. He's nicknamed Lambu, meaning tall guy (he's 6ft 5ins)

3. He's given up eating fried food to improve his fitness - according to his mother a shame because his favourite from her cooking was kachauris, a fried Indian bread

4. He set the record for the fastest ball bowled by an Indian by reaching 152 kilometres per hour (94mph)against Australia at Melbourne in 2008. It was beaten this year when Varun Aaron touched 153 in a domestic game. Pakistani Shoaib Akhtar holds the Test record at 100.1mph.

5. He says his career struggled for a year or two because he tried to copy Zaheer Khan's action to make the ball swing. He claims learning meditation helped him sort himself out.

'.$sign_up['title'].'

'; } } ?>

:

:

:

?

: