Swann ready to join the fun

SPORT BETTING: HAVE England been brilliant in the current Test series against India, or have their hosts been as abject as they have been made to look?

I suspect the answer lies somewhere in between, but whatever the truth of the matter is, I just can’t see any way back for India in the final Test which gets under way at The Oval tomorrow.

India have still to make 300 in an innings during this series - an amazing statistic given the strength of their batting line-up.

Only Rahul Dravid has batted with any real discipline, while the likes of Suresh Raina, Gautam Gambir and, yes, to a degree, Sachin Tendulkar, have looked pale shadows of their normal selves.

Returning opener Virender Sehwag bagged a pair of ducks in the last Test at Edgbaston and skipper DS Dhoni’s resistance has been marked by extravagance rather than measured batting.

As for their bowling, India have been a lost cause ever since they were robbed of Zaheer Khan to injury in the first session of the first Test.

These guys would struggle to bowl out Bangladesh on our wickets, let alone England’s most powerful line-up for years.

So an England victory or a hard-fought draw look the only real possibilities this weekend and England, at 5-4, are so overwhelmingly on top that they must be the bet.

Alastair Cook, who for some bizarre reason attracted criticism for slow play during his 294 in Birmingham, is justifiably favourite to be top England batsman at 7-2, with the returning Jonathan Trott 4-1, Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pietersen 9-2, Ian Bell 5-1, Eoin Morgan 8-1 and Matt Prior a tempting 12-1.

But it’s the bowling odds which catch my eye as I have a feeling Graeme Swann is about to show us all why he is the world’s number one spinner.

The Oval pitch usually offers spin and Swann will be itching to make a match-winning contribution after watching the seamers grab all the headlines this summer.

At 7-2 and with conditions likely to be in his favour at some stage in this Test, he looks a decent bet.


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