A glorious summer of sport pretty much started with cricket’s T20 World Cup in the United States and West Indies so it’s fitting it pretty much finishes with a series of short-format games between England and Australia as the leaves begin to fall and the nights draw in.
Euro 2024 followed the T20 fun and games won by India, then there was Wimbledon, The Open, the Olympics and Paralympics and more tennis with two new champions at the US Open at Flushing Meadows on Sunday.
Now England face the Baggy Greens in white-ball T20 and One Day International action, starting with a 20-over shootout at the Rose Bowl on the outskirts of Southampton.
Australia enter the fray as 7/10 favourites with Betway to win the three-match series after warming up with a clean sweep against Scotland as England were falling at the final hurdle in their attempt to win all six of their summer Tests against West Indies and Sri Lanka.
The tourists are without anti-hero David Warner, their masterful runscorer and inspiring presence, who has retired while pace bowler Pat Cummins is being rested but fear not, there’s a new villain of the piece in the shape of Travis Head.
He scored the third most runs at the T20 World Cup, hitting 255 in total with a highest score of 76 and an average of 42.50, and he has just joined captain Mitchell Marsh in setting up a new powerplay world record of 113 for one in six overs after Jake Fraser-McGurk was dismissed for a duck on his debut against Scotland.
Head also equalled the record for the fastest half-century recorded by an Australian in the short format, getting there in just 17 deliveries, hitting 12 fours and five sixes with 78 of the 80 runs he clattered reaching the boundary.
No surprise then that Head is the 11/2 favourite with Sky Bet to be the leading batsman in the Hampshire opener and he’s also worth following at 16/5 with Paddy Power and Betfair to be Australia’s top scorer on Wednesday evening.
Adam Zampa is 16/5 with the same firms to be their top bowler while Reece Topley is 4/1 with BetMGM, BetUK and Unibet to be the hosts’ best wicket-taker.
England may be rusty as they haven’t played this format since a topsy-turvy World Cup campaign which eventually took them to the semi-finals, but they can rely on Liam Livingstone to score runs in the middle order and he’s 11/2 with Paddy Power and Betfair to be their best batter.
• Charley Hull is 6/1 with Betway, Sky Bet, bet365 and StarSports to be Europe’s top scorer in the Solheim Cup while Nelly Korda, the obvious choice to lead the USA charge, is 9/2 with the same firms, Ladbrokes and Coral.
The United States are 8/11 with Sky Bet to regain the trophy in Virginia after drawing with the defending champions in Europe last time around.
• The Other Kobe, who gave us a terrific run for our money in this year’s Greyhound Derby at Towcester, is worth following in the Irish Laurels in Cork after a cracking first-round run.
The reigning Irish Derby champion is 8/1 with Paddy Power and Betfair after winning his heat in a blistering 28.01 seconds, which was the second-fastest time of the opening stages at Curraheen Park.
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