Australia vs England, 3rd ODI – Match Predictions

Coming into the ODI series after the Ashes annihilation, nobody backed England to take a 2-0 lead, but here they are, having won the first two ODIs in a row against the world champions and are on the verge of handing them a series defeat in their own den.

The Kangaroos need to play a different brand of cricket than what they have played in the series. The positive approach that’s often associated with Australian Cricket wasn’t there to be seen in the first couple of encounters. In both the games, they batted first and failed to put a par score on the board. In the first match, they scored 304, but it was probably a 320 pitch at the MCG.

Talking about the English players, they, on the contrary, have been really emphatic and have managed to outplay Australia in all the three facets of the game. Clearly, the pressure will be on the hosts as the two teams step onto the Sydney Cricket Ground to play the third ODI.

Also read CricTracker’s preview of the match

Here is what CricTracker predicts for the game:

Scenario 1: Australia win the toss

Toss Prediction: Australia choose to bat first

First innings score prediction: 320-330

Result prediction: Australia win the match by 40 runs

Scenario 2: England win the toss

Toss Prediction: England choose to bat first

First innings score prediction: 280-290

Result prediction: Australia win the match by 5 wickets

Top Performer

David Warner (Australia) | Mark Wood (England)

Head to Head

Total Matches Played – 139, Australia won – 80, England won – 54, Tied/No Result – 5

Australia

Australia need to sort their selections. They played Adam Zampa in the first game, but dropped him at the Gabba and went without a specialist spinner which didn’t make too much sense considering the fact that it was a two-paced wicket Zampa would have made a real impact there.

Also, Australia must pick at least 4 specialist bowlers and must not depend on the batting all-rounders like Mitchell Marsh and Marcus Stoinis to give them full 10 overs. In the last game, they had just 3 specialist bowlers in the XI  in the form of Mitchell Starc, Jhye Richardson and Andrew Tye and that definitely turned out to be costly at the end. So that’s something they will have to look into.

Probable XI: David Warner, Aaron Finch, Steve Smith (C), Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey (wk), Mitchell Starc, Jhye Richardson, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa

England

England are likely to go with the same XI that they played at the MCG. They have been playing Alex Hales at 3 and that move is clearly working as the right-hander got a half century in the last game. Joe Root has been in good form as well and is holding the innings together batting at no. 4.

More than the batting, it’s actually England’s bowling which has stood out. They might have been lacking the sting in Test matches, but they seem to have got all the ingredients for an effective bowling attack in white ball cricket. The pace of Mark Wood and Liam Plunkett and the leg spin of Adil Rashid have proved to be the X-factor so far.

Probable XI: Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Alex Hales, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (C), Jos Buttler (wk), Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid

We think Australia will emerge victorious against England in this game.

Broadcast Details

TV- SonySix

Online- SonyLiv