I'm back...and so are the ODIs

Hi all - it's Stu from STUmpcam here again...Jagadish has kindly asked me to stay on for the One Day series and add my one-eyed Aussie view to goings on down here.

Well it all gets underway today in Melbourne. It's a glorious day here today, and we will no doubt see a spectacle.

The Aussies are now back to their cocky ways - with claims coming out the England will go the whole tour without a win, and records will be broken around the country.

I have to be honest, this disappoints me a bit - I'd love to see that happen, but seriously, it would be easier to respect them if they'd shutup and do it, rather than talk about how they are going to do it.

On paper, it does look like things could get a bit one sided - but that's paper. England will win some games, and with the Kiwi's in the mix, things could get unpredictable. The Kiwi's always lift against the Aussies. So a win or two from them, then if the drop a game or two to England, we have an even competition.

Certainly, an Australian side with Gilchrist, Symonds and White, one or more of which could be at the crease for the entire 50 overs, "supported" by the like of Hussey, Ponting, Hayden and/or Clarke could make a seriously big score, but so could a side with a rampant Pietersen or Flintoff. Vaughan also played some seriously nice shots in the Twenty20 game the other night - particularly for a guy whose been out of top line cricket for 12 months.

I think Australia will win this competition for what it's worth - NZ will be looking for a good build up to the World Cup, having had quite a few changes in the side and trouble implementing a rotation system of late - so their main goal will probably be to sort that out in time for the Carrabean and find an approach that gives them the best chance of doing well there. England, who knows - they don't appear to take ODIs that seriously do they? They showed in their last game of the Champions Trophy though, they can perform - one things for sure though - it will entertain us.

Labels: australia, Commonwealth Bank Series, england, odi