The Ashes- Second Test Previewed by Lee Keys

Lee Keys Previews the second test between England and Australia on Thursday at Lords…

Ponting hoping for better at Lords..

Onwards to the second test at Lords, a ground where England have failed to beat the Aussies since 1934. England were not up the standard required in Cardiff to veer look like causing the visitors problems and I don’t think the queue’s will be too long for the 4/1 about an England victory.

Lords has been a batting paradise of late but it must be worth pointing out that when there is cloud cover the ball is very receptive to swing bowling there so be careful about siding with the draw around the 6/5 mark.

The Aussies must be a good bet then surely???

Well of the three possible outcomes I would favour an Aussie victory but it has to be disconcerting that at no stage did James Anderson and Monty Panesar look in trouble when blocking out the Aussie attack. I mean could you see those two holding out against the likes of Shane Warne and Glen Mcgrath for the best part of seventy two balls???

If you look at England’s second innings it is safe to say that two of our key batsmen in Pietersen and Bopara were both out in bizarre circumstances. KP was clearly thinking about his lovely missus when watching the ball smash into his off stump, a shot which is amongst the strangest and worst shots I have ever seen played at test level. While poor Ravi Bopara was given an awful LBW decision.

The Aussie attack despite being better than our own was still short of what is required under normal circumstances to bowl a side out twice. I don’t think they offer anything out of the ordinary and for that reason I wouldn’t be rushing to take the 13/8 on offer.

So despite my epic failure to come up with some sort of value for an outright bet in the second test due to varying negatives for each of the three outcomes I have found a little gem in one of the lesser known markets.

You can back Australia at 10/11 with Boylesports to have the highest opening partnership. This is some serious value given that the convicts opening partnerships has been higher than England’s in five out of the last six innings, with the other one tied.


Australia’s openers have scored 415 runs at an average of 69.17 before a wicket is lost in the last six innings.

England’s openers have scored 140 runs at an average of 23.33 before a wicket is lost in the last six innings.

Even after the stats you only have to look at the first test. Andrew Strauss hates left hand swing bowlers (Zaheer Khan has got him five times in the last five matches) as Mitchell Johnson added to his woes by getting him out in the first innings. Then there’s Alistair Cook, who seems to be completely out of sorts especially judging by his posture when getting out LBW in the second innings. He was all over the place, with his head nowhere near in line with the ball.

The Aussies may have a weakness in Phillip Hughes but his attacking nature usually means there have been a good few runs on the board before he gets out to one of his unorthodox and unnecessary shots.

Simon Katich proved why I wanted to get on the right side of him in the runs market with a superlative century in the last test and I see no reason why his new found technique will desert him at Lords.

This is a very good value bet, the stats back it up and what I saw visually in the first test backs it up – GET ON.

4pts Australia opening partnership to be higher than England’s @ 10/11 Boylesports.