England vs India: Bell preparing to put this series to bed today
Published:Considering India haven’t managed to score more that 288 runs in an innings during this series with England, punter should be betting on and England win in this fourth Test.
England will start the third day of this fourth Test with a 457 run lead, and should they surpass the 650 mark – they have seven wickets remaining – England can be confident of bowling India out twice in the following two days.
Andrew Strauss’s side are currently 11/8 to win this Test with the draw the favoured result at 8/15, but with Ian Bell in such fine nick, there is every chance England can post a big score by tea time.
This depleted Indian bowling attack has been shoddy to say the least and the England batsman must take advantage today if they are to end with a series whitewash.
It would be all to easy for Strauss to watch his side play out a draw at the Oval, but a series whitewash puts England in a much superior position at the top of the rankings, and the England fans will be keen to see the aggressive streak from Strauss.
Should England win the series 4-0 South Africa would have to win all eight of their winter Test matches with Australia and Sri Lanka if they are to replace Engand at the top of the world rankings.
So Strauss needs to be aggressive today and Bell, currently on 181 runs, is 5/6 to go on and score more than 216.5 runs.
Should England make it to 700 by teatime, MS Dhoni’s side will know they will have to bat out around 250 overs over the next three days – plenty of time for the England attack to find 20 wickets.
