cricket.sophia gardensCardiff is the venue for Friday's second T20 international between England and Australia and the Aussies are 1-0 up with two to play

 

 

 

The series opener took place at Southampton on Wednesday and Australia came out on top by 28 runs.

 

After being invited to bat first Australia posted 179 (all out) in 19.3 overs. Short (41) and Head (59) put on 86 in the first 6 overs and later on Josh Inglis made 37. Livingstone with 3/22 was the top England wicket taker and Mahmood and Archer both struck twice.

 

Wickets fell at regular intervals in the England chase which folded on 151 all out in 19.2 overs. Livingstone top scored with 38, Sean Abbott (3/28), Zampa (2/20) and Hazlewood (2/32) did the bulk of the damage.

 

Travis Head was named MoM and Australia hit 8 maximums to England's 2.

 

This was how the teams lined up at Southampton.

 

England: Philip Salt (c & wk), Will Jacks, Jordan Cox, Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell , Sam Curran, Jamie Overton, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Saqib Mahmood, Reece Topley

 

Australia: Travis Head, Matthew Short, Mitchell Marsh (c), Josh Inglis (wk), Marcus Stoinis, Tim David, Cameron Green, Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood

 

Head to Head

 

Overall the teams have met 25 times in this format with England winning 11 to Australia's 12 and no result was possible in the other 2.

 

Sophia Gardens, Cardiff

 

England won their first 8 T20 internationals at this venue before they came unstuck against South Africa in July 2022 in a 58 run defeat.

 

A scheduled clash with Pakistan in May this year was abandoned without a ball being bowled.

 

You can check the weather forecast here

 

 

The Betting - 2nd T20

 

At the time of writing England are 12/10 to win the match and Australia can be backed at around 6/10 with Sportingbet

 

England are 21/20 to hit the most sixes with Australia at 13/20

 

Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change

 

The Verdict

 

The Australian openers laid the platform for victory at the Rose Bowl on Wednesday and the writing was on the wall for England early in their run chase.

 

Josh Hazlewood had been a doubt for the first match after missing the 3-0 clean sweep of Scotland earlier this month but he was in the wickets and I give him the vote to pick up 2 or more here. In the same market and at the same price Adil Rashid gets the vote to strike at least twice for England

 

Bets: Player wickets Josh Hazlewood, over 1.5 at 14/10 with Sportingbet

Player wickets Adil Rashid, over 1.5 at 14/10 with Sportingbet

 

 

Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change

 

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