England on base 4 to score white-wash

High on confidence yet firmly rooted to ground Brits aim to make the most in the first of the two dead-rubbers.

England’s honeymoon continues as they battle their arch-rivals Australia in the 4th ODI at Kennington Oval, London. 3-nil up, they will be even more wary and keen now to do to the Aussies what they suffered in September 2009. The men from down under almost came-back into this series very late in the last game only to be handed a sour defeat. England also have the opportunity to experiment and test the bench as the World Cup 2011in the sub-continent is just at the horizon; Andrew Strauss may give the young Ajmal Shahzad an opportunity and maybe the veteran Ian Bell might find himself in the scheme of things if one of the key middle-order batters is rested. Of course, carrying on the momentum would be the biggest priority and a white-wash will definitely be a component of the blue-prints for the remaining two ODIs as it might enable them climb up the ICC Teams Rankings.

On all three occasions, the Aussies have batted first, on the last occasion they were forced to. Putting up competitive totals is something they have failed to do even after the openers have put up a half-a-ton stand in all the three matches which highlights the poor batting form of the middle-order including that of skipper Ricky Ponting. There have been speculations that a white-wash might even lead to a change in the Oz-leadership ahead of the World Cup. But the Aussies will be more worried about the embarrassment that a white-wash might cause at the hands of the team whom they defeated 6-1 at the same geographic location nine months back. They might not make any change to the playing XI as they have no benched middle-order batsman on this tour unless they plan to make room for Shaun Marsh somehow. Shaun Tait’s return has given the bowling a boost which had let them down in the first two games. 

Tim Nielsen might have to pull-out an Andy Flower or even a John Buchanan in the upcoming days to get the Aussie side back to winning ways as the other teams, who bowed earlier, are now retaliating and challenging the Aussie supremacy and the Oval should be the place to make a re-statement else they might have to tackle pressure more than the opposition.