Sydney is the venue for the fourth Ashes test match between Australia and England, the game gets under way on Wednesday and at 3-0 up Australia have the series in the bag and are closing in on a clean sweep
Australia won the first test in Brisbane by 9 wickets, they made it 2-0 with a 275 run victory in Adelaide and over Christmas they clinched the Ashes with an innings and 14 run victory in Melbourne where Scott Boland was Man of the Match.
England have been all at sea on the field and under fire off it. They have also had Covid in the camp including coach Silverwood, as have Australia with Travis Head due to miss the Sydney test. The situation with Covid will be worth monitoring in the run up to the game. This was how the teams lined up in the third test.
Australia: Marcus Harris, David Warner, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland, Nathan Lyon
England - Haseeb Hameed, Zak Crawley, Dawid Malan, Joe Root (c), Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler (wk), Mark Wood, Ollie Robinson, Jack Leach, James Anderson
Top Series Run Scorers.
Joe Root 253 (6 innings)
Travis Head 248 (4 innings)
David Warner 240 (4 innings)
Marnus Labuschagne 229 (5 innings)
Dawid Malan 202 (6 innings)
Top Series Wicket Takers.
Mitch Starc 14 (3 matches)
Nathan Lyon 12 (3 matches)
Pat Cummins 10 (2 matches)
Ollie Robinson 9 (3 matches)
Anderson (3 matches) Green (3 matches) and Boland (1 match) all have 7 wickets
The Venue, SCG
Over the course of the last decade Australia have won 6 and drawn 4 of 10 test matches staged at this venue.
That sequence includes an 281 run win over England in 2013 and an innings and 123 run victory in the 2017 Ashes
India and Australia played out a draw in the most recent SCG test 12 months ago
Series Betting
A 5-0 clean sweep for Australia is priced at 2/1, 4-0 is 14/10 and 4-1 is 7/1
England are 6/4 to win any of the remaining matches in the series
Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
4th Test Betting
Australia are 5/4 to win the third test with a draw at 10/11 and England are 19/2
Labuschagne and Smith are 9/4 joint favourites to top score in Australia's 1st innings, Joe Root is 16/10 to do likewise for England.
The Verdict
At the time of writing the draw was odds on with most books, I'm assuming the situation with Covid is a factor and if so it's possible we could see significant changes. Given a full game and a near full strength home side Australia would have England stone cold based on what we have seen so far.
In terms of making a call here and now I'll limit pre-match interest to Marnus Labuschagne to bounce back from a poor Melbourne test. Based on the standards he set in the first 2 matches he looked the pick of the batsmen and I'll take him to be the top run scorer in the match (combined 1st and 2nd innings totals).
Bets: Top Run Scorer (1st and 2nd innings combined) Marnus Labuschagne at 13/4
Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
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