Lord’s is the venue for Tuesday’s eagerly anticipated Cricket World Cup clash between England and Australia with England looking to bounce back from a surprise defeat last time out.

England:

England’s most recent outing came against Sri Lanka in Leeds on Friday and although they were trading at 1/10 before the game, they went down by 20 runs.

There was little evidence of what was come after Sri Lanka posted just 232/9 on a decent looking surafce with Archer and Wood taking 3 wickets a piece. England, without the injured Jason Roy, lost openers Bairstow (first ball) and Vince (14) before Joe Root (47) began to put them back on course. When Root and Morgan (21) fell Sri Lanka sensed an opportunity and although Ben Stokes (82 not out) kept England in the hunt, he ran out of partners and England were all out for 212 in 47 overs.

With this game followed by clashes with other likely semi finalist’s India and New Zealand, a record of 4 wins and 2 defeats means England still have work to do to reach the play offs.

Earlier results include a 104 run victory over the Proteas, a 14 run defeat to Pakistan, a 106 run win over Bangladesh, an 8 wicket victory over West Indies and a 150 run demolition of Afghanistan.

Joe Root is leading run scorer for England with 424, Eoin Morgan has 270 and Jonny Bairstow has 218. Jofra Archer is leading wicket taker with 15, Mark Wood has 12 and Adil Rashid has 7.

This was how England lined up against Sri Lanka last time out.

James Vince, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (capt), Jos Buttler (wk), Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Jofra Archer, Mark Wood

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Australia:

Australia took another step towards the semi finals when they came out on top against a spirited Bangladesh side by 48 runs at Nottingham on Thursday.

David Warner was the star performer with 166 of Australia’s bat first total of 381/5. Warner and skipper Aaron Finch (53) put on 121 for the first wicket and Khawaja added another 89. Bangladesh put up a gallant chase but their innings closed on 333/8 with Starc, Stoinis and Coulter-Nile all taking 2 wickets.

Australia now have 5 wins and 1 defeat against their name and they are 2 points better off than England with further games against New Zealand and South Africa to come. Earlier results saw them beat Afghanistan by 7 wickets and West Indies by 14 runs. They lost to India (36 runs) after which they beat Pakistan by 41 runs and Sri Lanka by 87 runs.

David Warner is leading run scorer for Australia with 447, Aaron Finch and has made 396 and Steve Smith has 244. With the ball Starc has taken 15 wickets and Cummins has 11.

This was how Australia lined up against Bangladesh last time out.

David Warner, Aaron Finch (capt), Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey (wk), Nathan Coulter-Nile, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa

Head to Head

The teams have met 147 times with England winning 61, Australia have won 81 with 2 ties and 3 no results.

At the start of 2018 England won a 5 match series in Australia 4-1. Later in the year England played host to a 5 match series and they completed a 5-0 clean sweep.

The Betting, Click here for all markets

England 15/20

Australia 11/10

Note prices quoted are correct at the time of publication but are subject to change.

Verdict:

Australia’s form is unrecognizable to 2018 when they lost 9 of 10 head to heads with England and the hosts might be a touch nervous after their defeat to Sri Lanka.

I can see a reasonably high scoring game and a highest individual score of over 105.5 runs makes the play.

In terms of taking wickets Pat Cummins has been quiet of late after a terrific start but he can bounce back any time and can also contribute with the bat. The Player Performance market awards 1 point per run, 20 per wicket and 10 per catch and the current quote of 36.5 for Cummins looks very beatable.

Suggested Bets:

Highest Individual Score, over 105.5 runs at 9/10

Player Performance, Pat Cummins over 36.5 at 9/10.

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