Mumbai backed to bounce back as IPL 18 gets underway

IPL 18 is all but upon us. Seventy-four matches across 13 cities will get underway on March 22, when the defending champions, Kolkata Knight Riders, host Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Eden Gardens, with the final set to take place at the same venue on May 22.

Despite their success last time out, in which they beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by eight wickets in the final, KKR are not the stand-out team in this year’s pre-tournament odds. At 8/1, they are still fancied for a top-four finish, but the favourites (at 4/1) according to the odds-setters at bet365 are five-times champions Mumbai Indians, whose wooden-spoon finish in 2024 is clearly expected to propel them back to more familiar terrain.

That standing, however, may well hinge on one of the most potent new-ball pairings ever compiled. Jasprit Bumrah’s inimitable pace and angles make him the most feared fast bowler in the world, although he has been absent with injury since the tour of Australia in January, and so Mumbai will doubtless be sweating on his fitness. Meanwhile, they have recruited Trent Boult from Rajasthan Royals, who remains a formidable powerplay wicket-taker, even at the age of 35.

The pair are 20/1 and 22/1 respectively to finish the tournament as Most Valuable Player (MVP), a long way off the favourites tag occupied by KKR’s most reliable matchwinner, Sunil Narine (11/2), whose 17 wickets at 21.64 and 488 runs from the top of the order were instrumental in last year’s triumph.

Among the batters, it’s hard to look beyond India’s gun players to be the tournament’s leading run-scorers. Shubman Gill, Gujarat Titans’ captain, has been in a remarkable vein of form of late, including a key role in India’s Champions Trophy win, and he is 10/1 to top the standings, joint-favourite alongside a rejuvenated Virat Kohli, and just ahead a core of compatriots on 12/1, including KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav and Yashasvi Jaiswal. Travis Head, Australia’s on-fire batter, is the same price, making him the top-rated overseas player.

Among the bowlers, it’s always hard to look beyond the spinners to be the IPL’s leading wicket-takers. Two men stand out at 11/1 – Rashid Khan, Afghanistan’s gun legspinner, will be leading the line for Titans, while another leggie, Varun Chakravarthy, is the same price, having burst to prominence with his performances against England in January.

The eight initial teams have been whittled down to four as the semi-finals loom in the ICC Champions Trophy. India will face Australia in Dubai on Tuesday, while New Zealand take on South Africa in Lahore the following day.

Due to the political stand-off between India and the tournament hosts Pakistan, we won’t know where the final will be held until the participants are known … although India themselves know they’ll be staying put if they can vanquish the side that beat them in the 2023 World Cup final. That, alongside their table-topping form in Group A, is a significant reason why they remain runaway favourites for the title.

India are 11/8 favourites to add the Champions Trophy to the 2024 T20 World Cup that they won in the Caribbean in June. Australia are second-favourites at 3/1, having overcome the loss of their front-line pace attack to mount a typically strong challenge, with Travis Head’s batting once again coming to the fore.

And yet, only one of those sides can make it to the final, which makes South Africa’s and New Zealand’s claim all the more appealing for a flutter. They are 7/2 and 4/1 respectively. For South Africa, Heinrich Klaasen epitomises the power that resides in their increasingly impressive line-up, and though they do have a certain hoodoo at ICC global events, they have at least won this trophy before, at its inaugural staging in 1998. And, had it not been for a sensational boundary catch in the closing moments in Barbados last year, they might already be T20 World Champions.

New Zealand’s own history at the sharp end of big tournaments is becoming similarly traumatic, with three lost finals in the past decade across white-ball events. But if they are to claim this title for the first time since 2000, then they may well rely on the seam-bowling prowess of Matt Henry, whose eight wickets for the tournament include a gutsy five-for in defeat against India on Sunday.

He is currently at the top of the wicket-takers’ standings, and is 6/4 to stay there, head of Australia’s Ben Dwarshuis (5/1) and India’s Mohammad Shami and Kuldeep Yadav (both 15/2). In the batting standings, a rare bit of good news for England comes in the status of Ben Duckett, currently the leading run-scorer, with 227 at 75.66. However, with England already out of the running, those odds of 4/1 probably aren’t especially favourable. One big innings from any of the men currently behind him, such as Tom Latham, Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill, and we’ll have a new sheriff in town.

Talking of which, how about Klaasen and Travis Head, India’s most frequent bogey-man of recent years? Neither has set the tournament alight yet, but with the stakes now at their highest, 80/1 says the big guns are ready to fire.

The ICC Champions Trophy is the next big-ticket item on cricket’s global calendar, with the tournament due to get underway in Karachi on February 19. Eight teams, all of whom qualified as a consequence of their performances at the 2023 World Cup, will compete for this slice of ICC silverware, in its first staging since Pakistan themselves won at The Oval back in 2017.

There’s no doubt about the runaway favourites for this competition. India were the beaten finalists on home soil in that 2023 World Cup, but have since cemented their white-ball credentials with victory in the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean. They are 2/1 favourites to land this prize for the first time since 2013.

They will arguably be aided by the political undercurrents to the tournament. None of their fixtures will be played in the home of their arch-rivals Pakistan, with Dubai stepping in as a neutral venue. With New Zealand (8/1) and Bangladesh (50/1) also drawn in Group A, they’ll be confident of a top-two finish and progression to the semi-finals.

Australia, the reigning 50-over World Champions, are the second-favourites for the tournament at 7/2. They potentially face a trickier Group B, however, alongside a powerful South Africa and an England team that will be coached by Brendon McCullum, and will be desperate to restate their white-ball credentials after that dismal 2023 campaign.

Both teams are 6/1 to lift the title, but as so often of late, the dark horses are Afghanistan. At 28/1, they are the most intriguing pick of the eight teams, and seeing as they famously beat England in that 2023 tournament, they are only ever an upset or two from making a genuine challenge for the knock-outs, and beyond. The odds of them reaching the final may seem far-fetched, but they made it to the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup in June. And given the talk of boycotts surrounding their participation, you can be in no doubt they’ll be motivated to make their mark ... and ready to capitalise if any of their three opponents bows to the external pressure.

It’s an Ashes year once more… a double-Ashes year to be precise, because while the men will be heading down under in about ten months’ time in a bid to reclaim the urn for the first time since 2015, the women are already in Australia, gearing up for their own bid, having come so close on home soil two summers ago.

Once again, it’s a multi-format series, with three ODIs, three T20Is, and a one-off Test at the MCG at the end of the month. But, in keeping with Australia’s long-standing dominance of the women’s game, the odds-setters at bet365 expect it to be a tough ask for England to end their own ten-year wait for a series win.

Australia are a skinny 1/6 to win the series outright, with England at 7/1 and draw – the result in England last time out – at 8/1. Although the Aussies have lost some of their sheen of invincibility after surrendering the T20 World Cup in October, England’s failure to emerge from the group stage of that competition has set back their hopes of being ready to put in a real challenge.

Nevertheless, they are coming off a strong run of form in the ODI format – the version that will open the points competition when the first match of three begins in North Sydney on Saturday. They went unbeaten against Pakistan and New Zealand in the home summer and beat South Africa 2-1 in December.

And, of course, it was their success in the white-ball formats – 2-1 victories in each – that ran Australia so close in 2023. Even so, Australia are still favourites in that format too. They are 1/4 to win the ODIs, against England’s 3/1, and are pretty strongly fancied to cruise it 3-0. You can get a price of 6/4 for Australia to achieve that scoreline, against England’s more outlandish 20/1.

The nights are drawing in, so it must be time for the Big Bash to liven up your winter morning’s viewing. The 14th edition of Australia’s premier T20 tournament gets underway on Sunday, December 15, when Perth Scorchers host Melbourne Stars at the Optus Stadium. And, as befits a team with a record five titles from eight final appearances, the Scorchers are the early favourites, according to bet365.

The Scorchers are a skinny 15/4 to atone for their third-place finish in BBL13 and make it three titles in four years, ahead of Sydney Sixers at 9/2 – although bet365 are currently offering a Bet Boost to 5/1, if you reckon the Sixers, champions in 2019-20 and 2020-21, can get back to winning ways.

The Stars, by contrast, are not a fancied outfit. Alongside Hobart Hurricanes, they have never yet won a BBL title, and at 8/1 they aren’t expected to break that duck this year. At least they can claim bragging rights of sorts over their hometown rivals, Melbourne Renegades, who finished rock-bottom three years in a row after their sole title in 2018-19, and are 9/1 to land their second trophy.

It’s a long way to go until the final on January 27, but the Player of the Tournament frontrunner is a familiar white-ball force. Adam Zampa, at 14/1, has been Australia’s cutting edge in recent years, not least in their 2023 World Cup win, and was the leading wicket-taker in last summer’s successful Hundred campaign with Oval Invincibles.

And if it’s not volume of wickets that decide the title, then weight of sixes might go a long way. Chris Lynn, at 11/2 is the early market-leader to clear the ropes most often, just ahead of Finn Allen and Josh Brown, at 13/2.

England’s Bazballers are back on the road again, this time in New Zealand – the birth nation of both their captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum – and a country where they have not won a Test series since 2007-08, when a certain James Anderson and Stuart Broad first came together as a matchwinning pairing.

England should by rights have won on their last visit in 2023, but after a handsome win in the first Test, they squandered a dominant position in the second to lose a thriller by a solitary run. The odds-setters at bet365, however, don’t fancy their chances of putting that record straight: they are slender outsiders in this three-match series, at 6/5 compared to New Zealand’s 1/1, with the draw – the scoreline last time out, albeit across two Tests - a more distant 17/2.

In terms of specific scorelines, England’s reputation precedes them. They’ve played out a solitary draw in 32 matches since the start of the Bazball era – and that match, against Australia last summer, required two days of rain to be written off. As a consequence, you can get a scarcely credible 250/1 for a 0-0 draw, and even 2-0 in either direction is a distant 12/1. If you’re aware of a secret cyclone in the region, now’s the time to cash in.

In terms of the series’ leading run-scorer, it’s hard to look beyond the two greats on parade in this contest. Joe Root has enjoyed a stellar year in which he’s marched to the summit of England’s all-time batting, and he is 15/8 to top the charts once more. His counterpart Kane Williamson is also strongly favoured at 5/2, although seeing as he’s returning from a groin strain, his first objective is to come through the Christchurch Test unscathed. One to watch is England’s debutant, Jacob Bethell. At 7/1 he’s more of an outside bet, but England have backed him to bat at No.3, and the place is his to hold if he starts the series well.

In terms of the bowling, the veteran seamers, Matt Henry and Tim Southee, top New Zealand’s odds at 2/1 apiece. Both men know their conditions inside-out, and Hagley Oval tends to be especially favourable for the quicks. The most highly fancied fast bowler, however, is England’s break-out star of 2024, Gus Atkinson. Odds of 15/8 say he’ll finish his year as he began it, having claimed 40 wickets at 21.32 in eight Tests to date.

It’s a huge series, with immense implications for the World Test Championship table. But most importantly, it’s one of the foremost grudge matches in the world of cricket. And it is looming large in Perth next week, when Australia and India go head-to-head in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Up until a few weeks ago, India might have fancied their chances of emulating their incredible victory down under in 2020-21, when they bounced back from being bundled out for 36 in Adelaide to claim the series 2-1 with wins in Melbourne and Brisbane. They’d been riding high across formats, including with a T20 World Cup victory in the Caribbean, and were set to face an Australia team in the early throes of transition, with particular doubts about their opening partnership.

But then came New Zealand’s stunning 3-0 clean sweep in India – the hosts’ first home series loss since 2012-13, and suddenly it is India facing questions about the end of a golden generation, with their batting greats Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli among those under the most scrutiny after fallow recent form.

As a consequence, the odds-setters at bet365 expect Australia’s home dominance to come to the fore once more. They are 4/9 favourites to seal the five-match series, with India at 3/1 and the draw a more distant 7/1.

And, if you want to take a punt at the ongoing series score, there’s not a lot of love for a competitive rubber. Australia are 15/8 to be leading 2-0 after two Tests; 7/2 to be leading 3-0 after three, and a still-skinny 11/2 to be eyeing up a 5-0 whitewash going into the series finale in the New Year.

India, by contrast, are a distant 33/1 to be leading 4-0 after four, and still outsiders at 9/1 for a more plausible 2-1 or 3-1 lead. One thing that does seem off the table, however, is a diet of draws. You can get 250/1 for the scoreline to be 0-0 after four, while an Australia 1-0 lead at the same stage is 80/1.

There are few doubts about who bet365 expect to be the key batter in the series, however. Steve Smith looks set to return to the middle-order after his experiment at the top of the order, and he is 2/1 favourite to be Australia’s leading run-scorer. Virat Kohli is 9/4 to be India’s main man, and Australia’s quicker pitches ought to suit his game well. But if India are to put up a fight, then it might be up to the new generation to stand up and be counted. Yashasvi Jaiswal at 5/2 and Rishabh Pant at 4/1 are two of the likeliest contenders.

Fresh from their 2-1 series loss in Pakistan (which last month’s odds of 13/2 figured was rather unlikely…) England’s men are switching formats this week - and timezones as well - with a hop to the opposite side of the world and a white-ball tour of the Caribbean, a venue that they last frequented in their semi-final exit from the T20 World Cup in June.

England have had a rough time of it on their recent tours of West Indies. Famously they haven’t won a Test series in the region for two decades and counting, and their white-ball record over there has taken a hit recently. West Indies won a hard-fought T20I series by three games to two in January 2022, then repeated that scoreline this time last year, while edging the ODI series 2-1 as well.

And so, as England arrive with an experimental squad, lacking (for now) the services of captain Jos Buttler, West Indies will be optimistic of continuing that trend for the ODI leg at least, which gets underway with a Halloween special in Antigua on Thursday.

According to bet365, however, England are favourites, both to win the series (4/7) and the first match (4/6) – perhaps as a consequence of West Indies’ recent tour of Sri Lanka, which concluded this week with a 2-1 ODI series loss. If you fancy their chances of bouncing back in style, however, you can back them at 7/1 to land a series clean sweep, and 21/10 to win it 2-1.

In terms of the predicted top batters, Will Jacks is backed to make the biggest splash for England. He is 15/4 to be the top-scorer in the first ODI, fractionally ahead of Phil Salt (4/1), with Jordan Cox – soon to be making his Test debut in New Zealand – at 5/1. Michael Pepper, Essex’s hard-hitting batter and Buttler’s designated stand-in is also 5/1, while Jacob Bethell – another Test call-up - is rather longer odds at 9/1 but could be worth a flutter if the top-order fluff their lines in the powerplay.

No surprise about who the odds-setters expect to star with the ball, however. Jofra Archer has been getting back to his best in his careful rehabilitation from injury, and after an intermittently impressive display in the T20 World Cup, he is 3/1 to be England’s leading wicket-taker in the opening match, alongside Adil Rashid, their ever-green legspinner.

One market in which West Indies do have the edge, however, is in match sixes. Their big-hitting exploits have been a feature of their recent successes against England, particularly when utilising the prevailing Caribbean winds, and they are 10/11 to out-muscle their opponents once more.

England didn’t just defeat Pakistan in last week’s first Test in Multan, they defeated the hot, flat, inhospitable conditions – and in emphatic style too, with Harry Brook’s triple-century and Joe Root’s career-best 262 driving their team to a formidable 823 for 7 declared, the fourth-highest total in all of Test history.

And with that, England set themselves up for their fourth win in as many matches in Pakistan, meaning that they go into this week’s rematch – on the very same strip of turf – as very strong favourites, according to the odds-setters at bet365.

England are 8/11 to make it 2-0 this week, with Pakistan ranked at 9/4 to square the series, and the draw a more distant prospect at 5/1 – which still seems thin given that England almost won with a day to spare first-time round, and that the speed at which this game develops ought to be dictated by the PCB’s decision to re-use a pitch which was just beginning to show signs of wear and tear by the final morning.

England are even skinnier odds to claim an outright series win, at just 2/9, which reflects the likelihood that they’ll be strong enough to win at least one of the two remaining games, against a team that has now lost six on the bounce. If you believe Pakistan are capable of a stunning series turnaround, you can get odds of 13/2. Remarkably, that prospect is rated as likelier than a 1-1 series draw (15/2), probably because England’s Bazball approach more or less takes the draw out of the equation. They’ve drawn just one match in 30 since June 2022, and that was almost entirely due to the rain.

As for the Player of the Match, it’s hard to look beyond the main men from the first Test. Root leads the way at 13/2, just ahead of Brook and Jack Leach, who are both at 7/1. For Pakistan, Saud Shakeel is 9/1 and the captain Shan Masood is 10/1, which is the same odds as both Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett.

If you’re looking for a longer-odds punt, Pakistan’s debutant Kamran Ghulam is a distant 33/1. At the age of 29, he comes into the team with a decent pedigree, with nearly 5000 first-class runs at an average of 49. But seeing as he is replacing one of Pakistan’s all-time greats in Babar Azam, the pressure is sure to be on when he walks out to the crease.

All of a sudden, there’s life in England’s ODI series with Australia. After two emphatic defeats at Trent Bridge and Headingley, the hosts were staring down the barrel against a side that won each of its last 14 matches in the format, including last year’s World Cup final against India. But thanks to a superb century from stand-in captain, Harry Brook, the teams head to Lord’s on Friday with the series still very much up for grabs.

Australia are, however, still rated as favourites by bet365. They are 4/6 to win the match, and therefore the series, against England’s 6/5. But, with more rain around, and the prospect of Duckworth-Lewis-Stern calculations coming into play, it’s a particularly hard market to read. What price a washout?

In terms of the individual honours, there’s no doubt who the odd-setters favour. Travis Head has been in astonishing form across formats for 18 months and counting, and after his brilliant unbeaten 154 at Headingley, his absence for the Durham match on Tuesday was potentially a major factor in England’s win. He is 13/2 favourite to be named player of the match once more, and 3/1 to be Australia’s top scorer.

Brook, however, has shown his own form with that maiden ODI hundred: 9/1 says he’ll win the plaudits for England.

Another significant absentee in Durham was Adam Zampa, Australia’s peerless white-ball legspinner. Assuming he recovers from the illness that laid him low, he is 15/4 to be the top match bowler.

The English season is winding down, but there’s no slowing down the international cricket calendar. We are now days away from the Women’s T20 World Cup, which had originally been scheduled to take place in Bangladesh but has since been moved to the UAE for security reasons.

And seeing as it’s a women’s international tournament, there’s no prizes for guessing which team is runaway favourites for the spoils. Australia’s all-conquering outfield are serial champions on the world stage – since 2010, they have won the T20 World Cup an incredible six times out of seven, with only their surprise loss to West Indies in the 2016 final denting that run.

They reclaimed their 50-over world cup title in 2022 as well, and at 8/11 they are exceptionally skinny odds to add to that haul of silverware. Nevertheless, there is a sense that their hegemony is under threat at the moment. India are a mighty outfit these days, with the growth of the Women’s Super League in India further enhancing their status, and at 7/2, they offer a rather better return on any investment, if you believe the time is right for a new champion.

And what of England? They’ve come through an unbeaten home summer, albeit against underwhelming opponents in New Zealand and Pakistan, but as they showed with a mighty tussle in the Women’s Ashes in 2023, they are better prepared than they’ve been for years to go toe-to-toe with the Aussies. In fact, they won both the 50-over and 20-over legs of that series, and would have regained the Ashes had it not been for their loss in the one-off Test.

With Sophie Ecclestone leading one of the best spin attacks in the world game, and with Nat Sciver-Brunt back to fitness as an allrounder and widely considered to be the most in-form batter in women’s cricket, they are 4/1 to add to the solitary T20 world title that they landed in 2009.

Beyond the big three, the odds are stacked against the rest of the field. South Africa, however, shocked England at the semi-final stage in 2023 so are perhaps better value than their 16/1 price would suggest, while West Indies, though far from the force of old, are still a powerful outfit whom no-one would wish to face in a knockout. At 20/1, they are an enticing price.

Leaving aside the fairytale outsiders, Scotland, at 1500/1, the best of the rest are quite possibly Sri Lanka, at 30/1.

This time last year, Sri Lanka stunned England on home soil, with Chamari Athapaththu leading the line with brilliant resolve. Even if an outright win seems a stretch for such an outsider, who’s to say they can’t find their way to the final with a spirited group stage and a favourable draw. You can get 18/1 for Sri Lanka to face Australia… but a tasty 66/1 if you think England will be their opponents. If the big dogs trip up, there's options aplenty out there.

It only seems like yesterday that we were putting a bow on England’s Test series against Sri Lanka … [checks notes] … oh yes, that’s because it was only yesterday. But in the fast-forward world of the English cricket season, we’re into a whole-new format against a whole-new opposition this week, with the arrival of Australia for eight white-ball contests, including three T20Is, starting in Southampton on Wednesday night.

England, at 13/10, are slender favourites to take the series spoils, against Australia’s 8/13, which also happen to be the same odds for the opening match itself.

There’s an awful lot of unknown factors going into this series, for which Phil Salt will stand in as England’s captain while Jos Buttler nurses a calf injury. Jacob Bethell and Jordan Cox are set to make their debuts as standard-bearers of England’s coming generation, while Jamie Overton plays as a specialist batter, on the strength of his enormous levers and propensity to lump even bigger sixes.

But given his recent success in England’s limited-overs set-up - including back-to-back hundreds in the Caribbean last year and a riotous 87 not out from 47 balls in England’s best performance of the T20 World Cup, also against West Indies – Salt is the market-leader, at 5/2, to be England’s leading series run-scorer.

Will Jacks slots in behind him, on 11/4, which reflects the fact that he too will be opening the batting and so should get the best opportunity to go big. And a similar pattern dictates that Travis Head, Australia’s player-of-the-match in their 50-over World Cup triumph in Ahmedabad last year, is 7/4 favourite to be his team’s leading scorer.

On the bowling front, it promises to be a battle of two legspinners. At 5/2, Adil Rashid remains England’s trump card in this format, despite the sense that the past two World Cups might have been his swan-songs. But arguably the man of the moment, at 15/8, is Australia’s Adam Zampa, who hasn’t merely been a key cog in their recent white-ball successes, but was one of the star performers in Oval Invincibles’ victory in the Men’s Hundred this summer, which confirms his readiness to shine again in English conditions.

After a month of Hundred action, Test cricket returns this week at Emirates Old Trafford, with the start of the three-match series between England and Sri Lanka. But, despite some upheaval in England’s ranks, including the hamstring strain that has ruled their captain, Ben Stokes, out for the rest of the summer, the odds-setters at bet365 are not anticipating much of a challenge to their victory prospects.

Sri Lanka have a better record in England than their reputation perhaps suggests – ten years ago, in 2014, they landed a famous 1-0 series win, with a nailbiting victory in the second Test at Headingley. Yet England are an extraordinarily skinny 4/5 to pull off a 3-0 clean sweep – the same scoreline as in the first Test series of the summer against West Indies, while a 2-0 win (presumably with a rain-affected draw in the mix) is 5/2.

The best victory margin that Sri Lanka can hope for, at least according to the pre-series odds, is a slender 2-1 win, although that is still a distant 33/1. And yet, England’s own price for the same scoreline in their favour is a more reasonable 11/2, which perhaps suggests that a one-off win against the head isn’t completely out of the question.

Even so, it may take a stand-out display from one or more of Sri Lanka’s players to disrupt England’s progress this week. Each member of England’s top five is more highly favoured to be the first-Test top-scorer than any of Sri Lanka’s batters, with Joe Root backed at 3/1 to continue his strong form from the West Indies series, and new captain Ollie Pope priced at 11/2.

Kusal Mendis, meanwhile, is Sri Lanka’s leading prospect at 9/1, but the interesting option could be the former captain Angelo Mathews, who starred in the 2014 series win and is 12/1 to repeat his heroics. His best days may be behind him, but he does have a proven record against the hosts.

The Hundred has returned for its fourth season, and the action is already underway, with comfortable wins for Oval Invincibles over Birmingham Phoenix in both the men’s and women’s competitions at the Kia Oval on Tuesday.

And as the defending men’s champions, that eight-wicket victory has reaffirmed Invincibles’ status as the runaway favourites to defend their crown. According to the odds-setters at bet365, they are 11/4 favourites in the men’s competition, ahead of Southern Brave (5/1), whose own campaign gets underway at home to London Spirit on Wednesday.

Brave are the women’s defending champions, having been runners-up in each of the first two seasons in 2021 and 2022, and consequently they are once again considered the team to beat, at odds of 5/2. Northern Superchargers. There’s no love for Phoenix after their opening-nerve displays, however. They are 9/1 outsiders in the men’s competition, and an even more distant 18/1 in the women’s.

Among the individual performers, it’s hard to look beyond Adam Zampa as leading wicket-taker. The Australia and Invincibles legspinner picked off three cheap scalps to derail Phoenix’s middle-order and barely broke sweat doing so. He is 4/1 to finish as the tournament leading wicket-taker, ahead of another world-class leggie, Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan, who is 12/1 second-favourite, despite the fact that he’ll be arriving late for Trent Rockets due to a clash with Major League Cricket in the USA.

For the women, Amanda-Jade Wellington was another Aussie legspinner who made a big splash for Invincibles, picking off 3 for 9 in her opening game. She has shot to the top of the wicket-taking odds, on 13/2, joint with England’s No.1-ranked spinner, Sophie Ecclestone, who promises to be a significant player for Manchester Originals too.

Another pair of Aussie women are perched atop the batting odds, too. Meg Lanning, back in action for London Spirit, and Beth Mooney, Originals’ marquee signing are both 6/1, and primed to tear it up. Phil Salt, another Originals’ opener, tops the odds for the men’s batters, at 13/2, just ahead of Dawid Malan (7/1), who doubtless has a point to prove in his new role at Invincibles.

It was a thoroughly one-sided contest at Lord’s last week, as James Anderson bade farewell to Test cricket in the course of an innings-and-114-run victory over West Indies that barely made it past an hour of day three.

Now the teams are set to regroup at Trent Bridge for Thursday’s second Test, and despite West Indies’ proud recent record in contests against England – including their home series wins in 2019 and 2022, and impressive victories against the odds on each of their last two visits to England – the prospect of a fightback isn’t exactly being talked up by the folk at bet365.

West Indies are a distant 66/1 to overturn their 0-1 deficit and snaffle the series with consecutive wins at Trent Bridge and Edgbaston. And given the scarcity of draws in England’s Bazball era, the prospect of a squared 1-1 series isn’t exactly on the cards either – 40/1 is a fair indication it won’t happen.

That’s not to say that West Indies won’t find a means to regroup in at least one of the next two games, however. England are a more tempting 8/1 to seal a 2-1 win, and given that West Indies’ impressive attack did have its moments in England’s only innings at Lord’s, it’s not out of the question that they could give their struggling batters a chance to land a blow.

The smart money, however, is on further England dominance. A skinny 2/7 says a whitewash is on the cards, while a 2-0 scoreline – perhaps with rain aiding a Windies escape in one match – is 9/2. If you have a reliable rain radar and/or no faith whatsoever in the British summer, however, 66/1 says England will take the series 1-0 with consecutive draws.

Sixteen teams have been whittled down to eight as the T20 World Cup hots up, but who can we expect to claim the title in Barbados on June 29?

After the opening two matches of the Super Eight stage, the betting is hotting up. England, the defending champions, won handsomely in St Lucia against the hard-hitting hosts, West Indies, while South Africa overcame a spirited challenge from the surprise package, USA, in Antigua.

Neither result has shifted too many pre-conceptions, however. England are 4/1 to retain their title while West Indies are still well worth a flutter at 15/2. The favourites remain on the other side of the draw, where India are 7/4 to land the title that they won at the first attempt, way back in 2007 when, coincidentally, their current captain, Rohit Sharma, was just starting out in his career.

Australia, the 2021 champions and current holders of the 50-over World Cup, are second-favourites at 3/1, and with their opening match of the Super Eight coming against the lesser-fancied Bangladesh (66/1), they will expect to land two precious points to enhance their claims to a semi-final berth.

The most interesting team still in the mix, however, is arguably Afghanistan – and their clash with India in Barbados could be a very telling indicator of their potential. They were soundly beaten in their final group game against West Indies, but their spin-laden line-up may well prefer the slower conditions that have prevailed in Bridgetown, and 20/1 says they could be a very lucrative pick if they can reach the knock-outs.

No-one is quite as lucrative as the rank outsiders, USA, however. They are a distant 250/1 to claim the crown, which is a fair reflection of the strides they have taken just to come this far. Even so, they saw off Pakistan in the group stage and have given both India and South Africa plenty to ponder in their recent defeats. You can but dream when you’re on the world stage.

It makes no sense that Jasprit Bumrah’s Mumbai Indians finished rock-bottom of the recent IPL standings. Well, it does when you look at their campaign in the round, but not when you consider that Bumrah himself was once again at the absolute zenith of his game, claiming 20 wickets at 16.80 and an economy-rate of 6.48 that no other front-line bowling option could match.

Bumrah is one of the primary reasons why India will start ICC T20 World Cup 2024 as the 5/2 favourites for the title. And unsurprisingly, he is also top of the leading wicket-takers market, at a skinny 6/1.

Pat Cummins, Australia’s 50-over World Cup-winning captain, is 11/1 in the same market, alongside his team-mate Mitchell Starc, whose exploits in the IPL play-offs were instrumental in Kolkata Knight Riders landing the title – not least his ball-of-the-tournament candidate to Abhishek Sharma in the final. With their legspinner Adam Zampa also among the front-runners to be leading wicket-taker, at 12/1, there are plenty reasons why Australia are a good bet (at 7/2 in fact) to recapture the title they last won in 2021.

Perhaps a more inticing bet comes with this year’s defending champions. In particular the returning Jofra Archer, who has been out injured for so long it’s hard to know how he will hold up to the pressures of a big tournament. But he looked robust enough in his England comeback at Edgbaston last week, and he is one of a knot of England bowlers, alongside Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley and Mark Wood, all priced at 25/1.

In the batting stakes, there’s no getting away from Virat Kohli as the market-leader at 13/2. In an era of T20 batting in which length of innings has begun to give way to speed as the defining factor, his ability to bat through an innings while still pushing along at a decent lick remains unarguable. Likewise, England’s captain, Jos Buttler, at 10/1, is a player on whom so many of his team’s fortunes will lie. If either man goes big, progress to the latter stages will surely follow.

It’s barely a fortnight until the T20 World Cup gets underway, and with England’s men taking on Pakistan in a four-match series later this month, all eyes are set to turn back to international cricket as the IPL comes towards its conclusion.

Unsurprisingly, given the form and focus on the subcontinent over the past month, the odds-setters at bet365 reckon India are the clear favourites for this year’s edition in the USA and the Caribbean. They are 11/4 to lift the trophy, having fallen at the final hurdle in the 50-over version in November, with Australia – their vanquishers on that occasion - tucked in behind them on 7/2.

One significant factor to consider, however, is the use in the IPL this season of the controversial impact sub rule. In essence, it has allowed teams to pack their batting and bowling line-ups at the expense of a traditional allrounder, which is arguably a bigger issue for India than for other teams. A lot of their challenge may depend on the form and fitness of Hardik Pandya as their fifth bowler. And bear in mind, too, that Indian players do not get to experience overseas batting conditions quite with the same freedom as franchise players from other countries, which may also explain why they’ve not won an ICC trophy since 2013, despite their obvious dominance on home soil.

England, who are – lest we forget - the 20-over defending champions, are third-favourites at 9/2, their fortunes undoubtedly boosted in recent weeks by the IPL form of Jos Buttler and, especially, Phil Salt at the top of the order, not to mention the hard-hitting Will Jacks, who is likely to complete a potent top three. After a transitional few months for the white-ball side, there’s a sense of a more settled line-up taking shape… not to mention a potential return to action for Jofra Archer.

Further down the list, West Indies at 9/1 are certainly worth a flutter. They have a superb range of power-hitters to call upon, and a spin attack that knows its own Caribbean conditions down to the ground. They saw off England in a six-laden series in December, and in their first chance to host a World Cup since 2007, are itching to put on a show for their home support.

It might be too much of a stretch to put much faith in Uganda (1500/1) or Nepal, Canada and Oman (all 1000/1), but for a longer-odds flutter, the Netherlands, at 250/1, have been punching above their weight in recent times, not least in emerging from a seriously tough 50-over World Cup qualifying tournament. A more realistic punt might be Afghanistan at 33/1 – another hard-hitting outfit who can beat anyone on their day. If they can reach the Super Eights, at the expense of either West Indies or New Zealand, who knows how far they could go.

With 31 group matches out of 70 done and dusted, the IPL 2024 is approaching its halfway point, and the gulf between the tournament’s frontrunners and backmarkers is widening with every passing day – as revealed by the yawning chasm that’s opened up in bet365’s tournament odds.

At the top of the tree, Rajasthan Royals are fully in the pink after a stunning start to their campaign. In winning six games out of seven, they’ve opened up a four-point gap on their most recent victims, Kolkata Knight Riders, who were left stunned on Tuesday night by arguably the greatest knock of Jos Buttler’s iconic IPL career.

And this is reflected by their skinny price for the title – they’ve won just once before, in the IPL’s inaugural season in 2008 - but are now clear favourites at 11/4, ahead of the defending champions are Chennai Super Kings (10/3), who are lurking menacingly in third spot at present, having won handsomely in their last two outings, not least thanks to their evergreen icon, MS Dhoni – back in the ranks after relinquishing the captaincy, and yet to be dismissed this season while batting at a 236 strike-rate.

When it comes to brutal strokeplay, however, few line-ups have got more bases covered than Sunrisers Hyderabad – are third-favourites at present on 4/1, but delivering shock and awe on demand, as shown by this week’s IPL-record total of 287 for 3 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, which in turn beat the previous mark of 277 for 3 that they set against Mumbai Indians two weeks ago. With Travis Head at the top of the order and Heinrich Klaasen bombing the death overs, they are shaping up as the side that no team will want to meet in the play-offs.

Not that RCB are being given a snowball’s chance of making it that far, however. Their flat-lining campaign has delivered one win in seven so far, leaving them all but are out of the running at 150/1 for the title.

Delhi Capitals and Punjab Kings are similarly considered to be no-hopers at 66/1 and 80/1 respectively, but Mumbai Indians – curiously – are considered a far better prospect despite also languishing on four points with two wins from six, having endured a turbulent time amid the captaincy switch from Rohit Sharma to Hardik Pandya. Perhaps that comes down to the fact that MI are due to play each of those two teams in their next three outings. Win those, and suddenly they will be right back in the mix.

No team has won a hat-trick of County Championship titles since Yorkshire in 1968, but that could yet change this year with Surrey beginning the 2024 season as hot favourites to add to their consecutive crowns in 2022 and 2023.

Under the leadership of Rory Burns, and with England Test stars Ollie Pope and Ben Foakes set to feature from the start of the summer, Surrey are 13/8 to seal Division One, according to the odds-setters at bet365.

By comparison, last season’s nearest challengers Essex are a distant 6/1, and though that still makes them second-favourites in the top flight – having themselves been the country’s stand-out red-ball team from 2017 to 2020 - the departure of their rising star Dan Lawrence for The Oval, along with the retirement of the great Sir Alastair Cook, epitomises the growing distance between the two club’s expectations.

Further down the pecking order, Warwickshire are this season’s third-favourites at 7/1, with Lancashire just behind them on 8/1, although that could change after the opening round of fixtures, given that they host Surrey at Old Trafford next week in a high-octane season opener. Nathan Lyon, their Australian offspinner, promises to be a key weapon during his three-month stay.

Durham, newly promoted after a thrilling campaign in Division Two last season, are perhaps the most interestingly priced at 12/1. If their squad cohesion and clear Bazball-style gameplans can withstand the rise in standards in the top flight, then who’s to say they won’t be adding to their three Championship pennants between 2008 and 2013?

The battle for the drop, meanwhile, looks like being a two-horse race, with Kent a distant 20/1 – having lost their star batter Jordan Cox to Essex – and newly promoted Worcestershire favourites to flunk at 25/1.

Who’s going to be coming up in the other direction though? The bookie’s favourites are Yorkshire, the crisis club de nos jours, who are strongly fancied at 15/8, having attempted to put a lot of their off-field issues behind them in recent months. Middlesex, at 11/2, are joint second-favourites, although their troubles might only just be beginning, given the financial strife that coloured their off-season.

We’re back under starter’s orders for the IPL. The 17th season of cricket’s premier T20 tournament gets underway at Chepauk on Friday, as the defending champions Chennai Super Kings take on the newly-rebranded Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the tournament opener.

The contest will pit together two of India’s most iconic cricketers in MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli, who missed the recent England Test series for the birth of his child and will be back on the big stage for the first time in two months.

There’s not a whole lot between the two teams, according to the odds-setters at bet365. CSK are marginal favourites at 4/6, with RCB close behind them on 6/5, while Kohli himself, at 12/5, is joint-favourite alongside his captain, Faf du Plessis, to be RCB’s top-scorer. Only CSK’s Ruturaj Gaikwad, at 21/10, is more strongly favoured for this contest.

But what of the overall odds for this edition of the tournament? Both CSK and RCB are strongly fancied for the title, although that’s often been said of RCB in particular, who have yet to claim the title despite their star billing. But it’s another of the old guard who are this season’s frontrunners.

Mumbai Indians were arguably the best T20 team in existence while winning five titles in eight seasons between 2013 and 2020. They’ve gone off the boil in more recent campaigns, and even finished rock-bottom in 2022, but showed signs of their former glories in reaching last year’s play-offs. At 7/2, they are considered the team to beat this time around.

Much of that standing rests on the peerless powers of Jasprit Bumrah, the best fast bowler of the moment, and a man whose every spell drips with wicket-taking threat. They’ve suffered a late dent to the bowling stocks with the leg injury that has ruled out Australia’s Jason Behrendorff, but England’s Luke Wood is an able left-arm replacement.

On the batting front, all eyes will be on Rohit Sharma, after his captaincy tenure was controversially ended to accommodate the signing of Hardik Pandya from Gujarat Titans, and that subplot could be one of the defining themes of their campaign.

At the opposite end of expectations, Punjab Kings are once again the tournament’s rank outsiders at 16/1, after a history of chronic underachievement – after finishing as semi-finalists in the inaugural tournament in 2008, they’ve had one anomalous runners-up finish in 2014, and outside of that have never finished higher than fifth.

Their opening fixture, however, is against fellow outsiders Delhi Capitals (14/1) on Saturday. One or other of those teams will have the chance to start their campaign with a bang. Whether it can be a sign of things to come will remain to be seen.

It’s all-square as England and India head to Rajkot for the third of five Tests, after two fascinating encounters at Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam. India’s series-levelling 106-run win in the latter was achieved despite some feisty fourth-innings batting from England’s Bazballers, who have shown beyond any doubt how they intend to mix it with the hosts and favourites for the remainder of the campaign.

And so, while they are once again the longer shot for victory at 11/4, compared to India’s 4/9, England’s terms of engagement have been firmly established. Another fast-paced contest is anticipated, despite reports that the Rajkot pitch will be among the best for batting in this series – in fact, they emerged with a draw when the venue last hosted a Test back in 2016, with Alastair Cook blocking his way to a final-day century.

No such prospect this time out, however. The draw is a long shot at 9/1, while the smart money is on a four-day finish one way or another, with odds of 11/2 saying that it’ll be done and dusted after lunch. Of course, it was at the same stage of England’s last visit in 2021 that they were condemned to a two-day rout on a dustbowl in Ahmedabad, but 20/1 says that both teams will prove more durable this time around.

So, if the runs are expected to flow, which bowler is best placed to stop either team in their tracks? The odds-setters at bet365 have retained faith in India’s iconic spinner, R Ashwin, who begins the game on 499 Test wickets and is 7/2 favourite to add significantly to that haul. However, England have played him with rare authority on this trip, with his series economy-rate topping four an over for the first time in his 97-Test career.

The one true point of difference in the Hyderabad Test was the peerless Jasprit Bumrah, the ICC’s newly-crowned No.1 bowler in the world, whose nine-wicket haul included the outstanding figures of 6 for 45 in the first innings. None of England’s batters, with the honorable exception of Zak Crawley, was able to combat him with any authority, and if he can serve up a repeat performance, his odds of 4/1 could be a licence to print money.

Of England’s bowlers, Tom Hartley is the shortest price at 6/1 to be the leading wicket-taker, followed by the legspinner Rehan Ahmed, at 15/2, notwithstanding the visa issues that have left a cloud over his availability for the match. James Anderson was impressive at Hyderabad too, but his more distant odds of 11/1 point to the likelihood that this will be a tough pitch for the quicks to make any significant impact.

Among the batters, it’s hard once again to look beyond India’s openers. Both Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal are 3/1 favourites to top-score, just as Jaiswal did in Hyderabad with his brilliant 209, followed by their second-innings centurion, Shubman Gill (5/1). Despite a tough series so far, England’s class act remains Joe Root – 11/2 says he’ll be back at the top of the run-scoring charts this week.

What on earth are we supposed to make of England’s extraordinary victory in the first Test against India? Was it just a fluke for the ages, or definitive proof that Bazball has upended all of Test cricket’s established norms? Should India simply brush it off as an anomaly, or have England established new terms of engagement for this series?

To judge by the odd-setters at bet365, the former train of thought most definitely still holds sway. The hosts remain firm favourites to square the series in this week’s second Test at Vizag, at 8/15, with England a significantly more distant 21/10. The only result that seems to have been ruled out is the draw. England have played out just one of those in 19 Tests, and that match at Old Trafford required two days of rain. Odds of 11/1 suggests that scenario is not about to repeat itself.

Nevertheless, England’s victory in Hyderabad was achieved thanks to some remarkable individual performances, most particularly Ollie Pope’s magnificent 196 and Tom Hartley’s debut haul of 7 for 62 in the final innings. Both men were, by a distance, the most prolific performers with bat and ball respectively, although India’s knowledge of their home conditions remains the clinchers so far as the second-Test odds are concerned.

No fewer than seven of India’s players are considered more likely to be named Player of the Match than any of England’s players, with Rohit Sharma (15/2) the favourite and his opening partner Yashasvi Jaiswal close behind on 8/1. Axar Patel (17/2) is considered the likeliest bowler to claim that accolade, having been the key instigator of India’s turnaround in the 2021 series, while Joe Root (10/1) is the first Englishman on the list.

The real value, therefore, lurks further down the field, particularly among England players who might yet spring another surprise. Pope, last week’s Player of the Match is a more distant 20/1, the same price as Hartley, while eight of England’s squad are priced at 25/1, including the uncapped offspinner Shoaib Bashir, who has a strong chance of making his debut this week. And, seeing as each of the last three spinners to debut for England all picked up five-fors in their first outing, who’s to say he won’t be the fourth?

Bashir is 10/1 to be the leading wicket-taker at Vizag, quite some way behind the market leader, R Ashwin (3/1) and Jasprit Bumrah, who was the outstanding seamer on either side in the first Test, and is 7/2 to top the wickets standings this time out. As for the batting, Rohit leads the way at 7/2, having been the difference between the teams three years ago, but again the value lurks among England’s unfancied options. Ben Stokes, for instance, looked in prime form in England’s first innings in Hyderabad – 20/1 says he’ll be the leading run-scorer in the second Test.

It’s been a compelling season in Australia’s Big Bash League, with impressive crowds backing up some high-octane exploits on the field, not least in this week’s final group-stage result, as Sydney Sixers hunted down Perth Scorchers’ imposing target of 198 to leapfrog into Friday’s Qualifier at the expense of the defending champions.

And that dramatic final-ball victory at the Optus Stadium has up-ended the bet365 odds going into this weekend’s knock-out phase. Scorchers, the five-times winners and long-time tournament favourites, have drifted out to 7/2, as they now need to win three straight games to claim their sixth title. Instead, it is Sixers, at 6/4, who are the bookies’ favourites, as they prepare to meet table-toppers Brisbane Heat (15/8).

Adelaide Strikers, at 7/1, complete the final four, but their more distant price reflects both a middling league phase, in which they won five and lost four of their ten games, with one wash-out, and also the daunting challenge of beating Scorchers on home soil… until Sixers stunned them, they had won 17 of their previous 18 matches in Perth, so the chances of them now losing two in a row are surely remote.

Even so, Scorchers will have to do without their heaviest piece of artillery in the knock-outs. Laurie Evans was in formidable form in Saturday’s defeat, clobbering 72 off 34 balls to take his tournament tally to 292 in seven innings, at an average of 58.40 and an extraordinary strike-rate of 189.61.

But he’s now decamped to play in the ILT20, as have a raft of fellow star players, many of them England-qualified. Strikers will be missing this season's joint-highest wicket-taker in Jamie Overton, and the third-highest run-scorer in Chris Lynn, as well as Adam Hose. Brisbane Heat will be without Sam Billings and captain Colin Munro against the Sixers, who themselves will have to cover for the loss of James Vince.

All of which leaves Strikers’ Matt Short out of sight as the tournament’s leading run-scorer. He’s the only man to have breached the 400 mark, let alone his current tally of 509 at 72.71, and with up to three more games to come, his enduring form could be critical in the competition’s shake-down.

It’s been a few weeks since England completed their 2023 itinerary with a 3-2 T20I series loss to West Indies in the Caribbean. However, with the calendar having now ticked over into the new year, it means the 2024 T20 World Cup will be upon us before we know it.

And so, with six months remaining until the next ICC global gathering, how are the contenders stacking up?

Despite their latest losses in the Caribbean, and their abject display in the 50-over version in India last year, England remain right up there among the favourites as they prepare to defend the title that they won in Melbourne 14 months ago. They are 4/1 second-favourites, according to the odds-setters at bet365, tucked in behind India at 11/4, and nestled alongside their old rivals Australia – the team that succeeded them as ODI world champions in November, and also preceded them as T20 World Cup trophy-holders, having won in the UAE in 2021.

Elsewhere in the betting, South Africa are considered fourth-favourites, at 7/1, after their run to the semi-finals in the 50-over version, but the value at present perhaps resides with the hosts, West Indies. They are currently 12/1, but as two-times winners in 2012 and 2016, they have proven pedigree in the 20-over format, and as their six-laden victory over England recently showed, they certainly know how to dominate in their own conditions.

India also succumbed to West Indies in a recent five-match series, and it’s worth adding a caveat about their market-leading status. Despite so often seeming like the side to beat, they haven’t won an ICC global trophy since 2013, and with their players barred from participation in domestic tournaments outside the IPL, they perhaps lack the overseas experience that many other opponents will bring to their campaigns. Caveat Emptor, if you’re looking for an easy win.

Further down the odds, there are some rank outsiders, most notably newcomers Uganda at 1500/1, but also some that could conceivably spring a surprise given a fair run of form. Afghanistan, at 33/1, are perhaps the best bet among the less-heralded teams – their vast experience of T20 domestic cricket will make them tough opponents at any stage of the competition. And even Ireland (200/1) toppled the reigning champions England in a rain-affected match at Melbourne last time out.

Christmas is a-coming, which means the season of rolling in from the office party and flicking on the action from Down Under is nearly upon us. The Australia cricket season kicks off in earnest this week with the start of the Men’s Big Bash League 2023-24, and understandably a familiar powerhouse team is leading the market ahead of the first ball being bowled on December 7.

With five titles in 12 seasons, including back-to-back wins in 2021-22 and 2022-23, Perth Scorchers are not only the defending champions but the Big Bash’s most storied winners, and according to the odds-setters at bet365, they are 13/5 favourites to make it a hat-trick of titles this time around.

The Scorchers’ established squad contains two men who’ve been in world-beating form for their country. Mitchell Marsh was one of cornerstones of Australia’s stunning World Cup triumph in India, with a brace of centuries against Pakistan and Bangladesh, while Josh Inglis – a surprise inclusion as wicketkeeper for that same campaign – cemented his status with a blistering 47-ball fifty in the subsequent T20I series against India.

And lo and behold, those same two men are leading the market for top tournament run-scorer too, at 9/1, just ahead of Adelaide Strikers’ Matt Short (10/1). Another World Cup star, Melbourne Stars’ Glenn Maxwell, is backed at 14/1 to carry over his explosive form, while there are a number of familiar Englishmen in the mix as well. James Vince (16/1) and Alex Hales (18/1) have proven pedigree in this tournament, as does Laurie Evans (22/1), whose explosive half-century sealed the 2021-22 final for Scorchers.

In the bowling stakes, Sydney Sixers’ Sean Abbott played only a walk-on part in the World Cup win, but 8/1 says he’ll be the tournament’s top wicket-taker. But if you’re looking for a man who’s in a wicket-taking mood at present, it’s hard to look past Melbourne Renegades’ Adam Zampa, whose 23 scalps in the World Cup were second only to India’s Mohammad Shami. He’s 18/1 to go one better and top the charts in the BBL.

For Player of the Tournament, however, the odds-setters have settled on the most eye-catching man in the field. From his World Cup-record 44-ball century against the Netherlands to his incredible double-century against Afghanistan, and on through his subsequent onslaught in the T20I series, Maxwell has been racking up the showreel moments in recent weeks. Odds of 12/1 say he will carry that form home with him.

Forty-five matches down, three to go. The 2023 World Cup is reaching its endgame, and the field has been whittled down from ten teams to four. England are long gone, their seventh-place finish at least a marginal improvement on their run of six losses in their first seven games, while the hosts India march into the semi-finals with nine consecutive wins.

And, not unsurprisingly, India remain runaway favourites to land their third World Cup title, and their first since hosting the 2011 tournament. According to the odds-setters at bet365, they are 1/3 to beat New Zealand in Wednesday’s first semi-final, and 10/11 to claim the overall spoils.

Can anyone stop them? Their bowling attack has been astonishingly on-point all tournament long, while their fanatical home support is guaranteed to be out in force once again in Mumbai on Wednesday for their semi-final against New Zealand – the same side that derailed them at the same stage four years ago.

New Zealand are used to flying under the radar at global events, but Kane Williamson’s men are nevertheless gunning for their third final in a row since 2015, and though they are the rank outsiders of the four remaining sides, they are also perhaps the one side that India will be most uncomfortable facing, given how content they are to embrace that underdog status. Odds of 7/1 say they can pull off one of the biggest surprises of the tournament.

As for the other half of the draw, Australia’s clash with South Africa revives memories of their epic tied semi-final in 1999 – arguably the greatest World Cup match ever played, and certainly in the top two alongside the thrills of the 2019 final.

South Africa landed the latest blow in this great rivalry when they romped to a 134-run win in the group stages in Lucknow, at which point Australia were rock-bottom in the standings with two defeats from two. But since then they’ve turned on the afterburners – seven consecutive wins including a come-from-behind win over Afghanistan, thanks to Glenn Maxwell’s extraordinary 201 not out.

As five-times winners, Australia have hit peak form just when it most matters, and are slender favourites to hand South Africa another dose of World Cup heartbreak. At 10/3, they are also considered the likeliest rivals to swipe the title from under India’s nose too. Is that remotely feasible? We can but wait and see.

How much faith have you got left in England’s World Cup campaign? Jos Buttler’s men probably need to win five games out of five just to reach the semi-finals, and they haven’t even played the unbeaten pace-setters India yet.

But you can still back them to get there at 14/1 with bet365, and if you’re happy with small returns on your investments, you can get odds of 1/33 for them to bomb out beforehand, which currently feels like a licence to print money ..

Either way, the bookmakers’ lack of faith in England could hardly feel further removed from their near-total conviction that the hosts India will continue their serene progress. With five wins from five, each of them a fuss-free run-chase, they are currently 4/11 to reach the final, and 11/5 to fall short.

It feels as though individual feats are pretty much all England have got left to fight for. And to that end, the market for leading wicket-taker has taken an interesting turn overnight, with the news that Reece Topley, England’s most effective bowler, has been ruled out of the campaign with a broken finger.

With eight wickets in his three appearances, Topley is still England’s leading wicket-taker in the tournament, but his odds on remaining so have slipped from 7/5 to a distant 50/1. Adil Rashid is currently in second place on six wickets, and at 1/3 he seems sewn up for that accolade now. But as England know from past World Cup disasters, when a campaign starts to go off the rails, things can change pretty quickly.

On the batting front, Dawid Malan has been the best on show for England with a fine matchwinning century against Bangladesh, and at 6/5, bet365 clearly back him to continue hoovering up the runs. But England are not yet completely out of the running, which means there’s still time to put some faith in the team’s habitual miracle-men.

Jos Buttler, the captain, is 12/1 to be his team’s leading run-scorer; Ben Stokes, back after injury, is more distant still at 66/1. But if you think there’s any chance left that the world champions can turn their tournament around, this pair will surely have to be in the thick of the remaining action.

The World Cup is finally upon us. Over the coming 45 days, 48 matches will take place across 10 venues, the length and breadth of India, beginning in Ahmedabad in Gujarat, where the 2019 finalists, England and New Zealand, will pick up where they left off in that unforgettable final four years ago.

As defending champions, England go into this tournament as 10/3 second-favourites, behind the hosts India (15/8), although bet365 are currently offering bet-boosted odds of 7/2 on England, which makes them a more tempting flutter. Either way, in the ten-team round-robin format, it would take quite a collapse in form for any of the favourites to miss out on the last four. And from there, as we saw four years ago, it’s all up for grabs.

But if the market leaders do falter for one reason or another, then the chasing pack stands to benefit quite considerably. And so the interesting odds lie further down the field. New Zealand, for instance, are a more distant 10/1 despite coming within six inches of glory four years ago. Likewise, South Africa have never won the tournament, but in Heinrich Klaasen they possess one of the most potent white-ball batters going around, and 9/1 says they aren’t a bad shot as an outside bet.

The rank outsiders are the Netherlands at 750/1, and with due respect to Leicester City, that narrative is surely too improbable to contemplate. But Sri Lanka (40/1) reached the Asia Cup final last month (albeit they crashed and burned thereafter), while Bangladesh (100/1) and even Afghanistan (125/1) are surely capable of overturning a big gun or two in Asian conditions. Make that a big gun or four, and they too could be in the last-four reckoning…

In the top performers’ stakes, India’s players dominate the markets, with Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli 13/2 to be the leading tournament run-scorer (closely followed by Rohit Sharma at 10/1), while Jasprit Bumrah (8/1) and Kuldeep Yadav (17/2) top the wicket-takers’ odds.

The more interesting picks are lurking elsewhere – not least a pair of legspinners with subtly different tournament expectations. England’s Adil Rashid has been the linchpin of their double World Cup-winning attack, and on India’s pitches, he will doubtless be in the action once again. At 14/1, he’s a strong pick, especially given how deep in the tournament England expect to go.

And then there’s Rashid Khan, one of the outstanding bowlers in white-ball history, upon whom so many of Afghanistan’s hopes will rest in the coming weeks. He is also at 14/1, but the better he fares, the better that long shot on his country will look.

As for the rest of the batting … it is England’s strongest suit, lest we forget, which makes Dawid Malan (12/1) an intriguing bet. He recently became England’s joint-fastest batter to 1000 ODI runs, and if he gets in across 50 overs, he’s liable to go big. Likewise his opening partner Jonny Bairstow (16/1) and their No.3 Joe Root, who has been out of form in recent weeks, but at 20/1 is well priced to bounce back over the course of an 11-game campaign.

The waiting is nearly over. In barely two weeks’ time, the 2023 World Cup will be underway, with the tournament set to open at the vast Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad with a rematch of the epic final in 2019 – England vs New Zealand.

But who is going to lift the trophy this time around, and which sides offer real value as the talking comes to an end?

According to the odds-setters at bet365, it’s hard to look past the hosts, India – and perhaps with good reason, seeing as each of the last three tournaments has been won by the home team: England in 2019, Australia in 2015 … and India themselves when they last staged the competition back in 2011.

They are the clear favourites at 11/5, and seeing as they dismissed Sri Lanka for 50 in last week’s Asia Cup final in Colombo, en route to a ten-wicket win in just 6.1 overs, they will come into the tournament with serious form, as epitomised by Mohammad Siraj’s career-best 6 for 21, and the successful return to fitness of the mighty Jasprit Bumrah.

But don’t write off the defending champions England. At 3/1 they are the best of the rest, and showed in last week’s 3-1 series win over New Zealand, that they have talent to burn – as Jason Roy, one of their stand-out performers in 2019, would sadly attest. Ben Stokes marked his return to 50-over cricket with an England-record 182 at The Oval, and given the round-robin tournament format, a place in the semi-finals will surely be the bare minimum of their expectations.

Australia at 9/2 are slightly longer odds, having received quite the beasting at the hands of South Africa last week. But as five-times champions, no team has a better sense of what it takes at the sharp end of a campaign. They will always be ones to watch. But so, too, are the South Africans – eternal World Cup bridesmaids, maybe, but in Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller, they possess two of the most devastating hitters in the current world game. Odds of 10/1 say they might be worth a flutter this time.

Further down the order, Sri Lanka are 25/1– and though that may seem generous after the Asia Cup final, they also have experience of winning a World Cup in Asia, way back in 1996. Familiar conditions will doubtless count for something at the tournament’s sharp end. And so, for that reason, Bangladesh at 50/1 seems the obvious opportunity for a dabble. England had to work mighty hard to beat them on home soil back in March. If they can fight their way into a top-four placing, anything’s possible in back-to-back knockout games.

The 2023 Hundred is nearing its completion, with the top three teams all set for this weekend’s Eliminator and Final, in both the men’s and women’s competitions.

On the men’s side of the draw, Oval Invincibles are already locked in for the Lord’s final on Sunday evening, awaiting the winner of Saturday’s showdown between Southern Brave and Manchester Originals; meanwhile, for the women, it is Brave – the two-times runners-up - in pole position, hoping to make it third time lucky after Northern Superchargers and Welsh Fire have battled it out in their Eliminator at the Kia Oval.

And unsurprisingly, it is the automatic qualifiers in each competition who are favourites to take the title according to the odds-setters at Bet365. Brave’s women are 4/5, compared to Superchargers and Fire at 14/5; Invincibles’ men are more strongly fancied still, at 5/6 versus 11/4 for their two rivals.

We are a week into the third edition of the Hundred, with the early runners starting to show some form (when the weather allows). In the men’s competition, defending champions Trent Rockets showed why they are 15/4 favourites with bet365 by winning a nail-biter on the opening night – although they were denied a shot at another two points by the rain in Birmingham at the weekend. If you’re looking for more in the way of value, keep an eye on Welsh Fire (7/1). They didn’t win a game through the 2022 edition but were victorious in their opener, against Manchester Originals, and pushed both Southern Brave, the 2021 champions, and Oval Invincibles all the way – the latter game ending in a dramatic tie at The Oval on Sunday.

Leading the betting to be top run-scorer is Jos Buttler at 9/2. England’s white-ball captain also leads the early standings with 99 from two knocks and is available to play the full tournament for Originals. Sam Hain made a strong impression on Rockets debut and is 10/1, while Australian Matt Short (10/1) shone for Northern Superchargers as they racked up only the second 200-plus score in the Hundred’s history. Don’t discount the likes of this year’s T20 Blast top-scorer, James Vince (16/1), or England candidate Will Jacks (22/1), one of only two men to score a 100-ball hundred.

The Women’s Hundred has been worst hit by the poor weather, with four washouts from nine fixtures so far. But while the favourites, Southern Brave at 7/2, have won two of their three games, they are currently being held off top spot by surprise packages Welsh Fire (5/1). Led by England batter Tammy Beaumont, Fire saw their opening game abandoned without a ball bowled, then travelled to Brave and not only scored the second-highest total in the women’s competition but became the first visiting side to leave the Ageas Bowl with victory. Another upset, beating defending champions, Oval Invincibles, away from home on Sunday means Fire have five points from a possible six.

Brave may take some stopping, though. They have the top three run-scorers so far, with India batter Smriti Mandhana (7/4) putting daylight between herself and most of the chasing pack. Opening partner Danni Wyatt is not far behind, and second favourite at 7/2, while Nat Sciver-Brunt is 11/2, having showcased her power in Trent Rockets’ opening defeat to Brave. Lauren Winfield-Hill almost became the first batter to carry their bat in the Hundred in Invincibles’ defeat to Fire and could be attractive at 25/1 while Heather Knight (20/1) and Deandra Dottin (25/1) will be among those hoping to make an impact in the coming days, with London Spirit and Manchester Originals both yet to get on the park.

The Ashes are gone for another series, drowned in the Old Trafford rains with England left frustrated after making all the running over the first three days of the fourth Test. But there’s still a proud home record to defend – Australia have not won a series in England since 2001, which means there’s plenty of pride to fight for in the fifth and final Test at the Kia Oval.

And perhaps for that reason, England are still considered favourites by the odd-setters at Bet365, though not by much… the hosts are 13/10 to win the match and square the series at 2-2, compared to Australia’s price of 13/8. The draw is where the most value resides at 3/1, although England don’t really do draws in the Bazball era. It required the loss of 150 overs at Old Trafford to condemn that game to its watery grave. Although the weather in London for this coming week isn’t the greatest either…

England have already named their team for the final Test, and it’s an unchanged XI, which means another outing for the veteran James Anderson, whose slender returns have been one of the talking points of the series. He turns 41 midway through the match, but you cannot write off quality, even when it’s been restricted to four wickets at 76.75. For that reason he’s still priced at a competitive 13/2 to be the leading wicket-taker in the match.

The market leader, at 4/1, is England’s rocket-man Mark Wood, who looked their likeliest route to victory at Old Trafford until the rain thwarted his impact. Two extra days of rest will have helped ensure he comes out firing on all cylinders once again at The Oval. Perhaps the more interesting punts revolve around the spinners on each team. Australia are expected to recall Todd Murphy (10/1) after an under-used display at Headingley, while Moeen Ali (12/1) has also picked up some useful wickets in the course of the series. If the Oval surface proves to be flat, and the sun comes out at any stage, both men may come into play.

At this late stage of the series, there are some tired bodies and minds doing the rounds. Australia’s captain, Pat Cummins, endured one of his most chastening Tests of all time at Old Trafford, where Zak Crawley in particular climbed onto the offensive, and he’s about to embark on his sixth Test in less than two months. You can get bet-boosted odds of 5/1 on him being the leading wicket-taker in England’s first innings, but even those might be a touch on the slender side if Crawley is in another of his moods.

Crawley himself is 8/1 to be England’s first-innings top-scorer, which is perhaps reflective of his tendency towards hit-and-miss displays. However, in this series he is the leading run-scorer on either side, with 385 runs at 55.00, and has hit upon a degree of consistency that has eluded him until now. He’s also 12/1 to be the Player of the Match, the same as Anderson in fact. Form may be temporary and class permanent, but Crawley has hit a vein of form that so far his illustrious team-mate has not been able to locate.

Two Tests to go in an epic Ashes series, and still it’s all up for grabs. England’s hopes looked pretty forlorn when they slumped to a 0-2 deficit with defeats at Edgbaston and Lord’s, but it was Baz to basics for the third Test at Headingley, where a thrilling three-wicket win left the equation pretty simple. Two more wins for England and the Ashes are coming home. One more slip-up – even a rain-affected draw – and Australia are keeping the urn for the fourth consecutive series since 2016-17.

And given such fine margins, the odds-setters at Bet365 aren’t taking many chances on a retention. A slender 1/6 says Australia do the needful, but an intriguing 4/1 for England to win back the Ashes, down from 12/1 last week, suggests that there’ll be more than just hope in the air at Old Trafford this week.

That said, there’s not much to separate the sides in the match victory stakes – 6/4 says an England win, 7/4 says Australia, with 12/5 splitting the difference on the draw. However, given the ten-day break between matches, and the chance that will have offered to Mark Wood to rest up and prepare to unleash another salvo of rockets on Australia’s batters, his bet-boosted odds of 10/1 to make it back-to-back Player-of-the-Match awards seems a tempting flutter.

The sense among the odds-setters, however, is that this particular contest could be won by the two outstanding batters on either side. Joe Root and Steve Smith have a century apiece in the series to date, and each of them is 7/1 to be Player of the Match this week.

James Anderson, back on his home ground and in potentially his penultimate Test, is 12/1 in the POTM stakes, but a more tempting option could be England’s lesser-sung hero from Headingley. Chris Woakes claimed three key wickets in each innings and sealed the match with a crucial unbeaten 32 in the run-chase. He’s 18/1 to be the game’s stand-out player, and in damp conditions that should suit his outstanding English-style seam bowling, don’t rule out another key contribution.

England are entering their Ashes last-chance saloon as the series heads for Headingley and Thursday’s third Test. There’s only been one team in Ashes history to come back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 – Don Bradman’s Australians in 1936-37 – and as a consequence, the odd-setters at Bet365 aren’t entirely optimistic on England’s behalf, despite considering them favourites for this particular match. Still, 12/1 for the mother of all comebacks, with Ben Stokes in the sort of mood he showed at Lord’s? It’s got to be worth a flutter…

It’s an opportune venue for another man of England’s moment. Yorkshire’s Jonny Bairstow was the aggrieved party after his controversial stumping on the final day at Lord’s, and as he’s shown in the past, he’s rarely more dangerous than when he’s got a point to prove. And he’s got ample happy memories at his home ground too, including his twin scores of 162 and 71 not out in another Bazball special against New Zealand last summer. At 14/1, he’s a very tempting price in the Player of the Match stakes.

And in keeping with England’s current approach to Test cricket, it’s been another six-laden series… 29 across the two Tests to date, including a whopping nine during Stokes’ 155 at Lord’s, the most in Ashes history. Stokes himself is 4/1 to continue to top that particular table at Headingley, although Australia’s Travis Head sneaks in as the market leader, at 10/3.

For Darren Gough, the Headingley Test promises to be a proud occasion, given his twin role as Yorkshire’s director of cricket. And with England desperate for a win, he is confident the home fans will rise to their team’s occasion.

“The Headingley Test matches are special,” Gough told ESPNcricinfo, in an appearance on behalf of Bet365. “It's the atmosphere that does it. Lord’s is purely about the occasion, but at Edgbaston and Headingley, the atmospheres are better than anywhere else.

“The pitches are pretty flat, especially if you look up and the sun is shining, but it rewards bowlers that can put the ball in the area consistently throughout the day. There’s such a fast outfield, a big square, if you don't get it right, England or Australia could easily score 450 in a day.

“If the sun's shining when you go to toss up at Headingley, you don't look at the pitch, you look up and decide what you're going to do. That's the only factor in a Test match there. That's why it's so exciting, you just don't know which way it's going to go.”

In the battle for the Ashes, all the buzz is about Bazball, and whether England’s supersonic batters can continue the free-wheeling displays that have driven their team to 11 Test wins in their last 13 outings. But over the course of a mouth-watering five-Test series, the fast-bowling stocks on each side could well be the deciding factor.

Who will last the course and emerge as the leading wicket-taker in the series? According to the odds-setters at Bet365, two men in particular stand out from the crowd – and this could well be because they are the likeliest men to feature in all five Tests of the series.

On the one hand there’s England’s Ollie Robinson, the “future GOAT” as his captain Ben Stokes recently described him. He’s only claimed 66 Test wickets to date, more than 600 fewer than his likely new-ball partner at Edgbaston, James Anderson, but they’ve come at an average of 21.27 and in all conditions too. And he’s a much fitter player than he was in Australia two winters ago. At 7/2, he’s the bookies’ favourite to claim the most scalps.

And hot on his heels in every sense is Australia’s spearhead, Pat Cummins, at 4/1. As the visiting captain, he will surely seek to front up in all five Tests as well, but even if he didn’t, his stellar strike-rate of 47.2 is proof of his threat every time he has the ball in his hand.

Anderson, entering his tenth Ashes campaign, is 5/1 to top the wicket charts, while Stuart Broad – also named for the Edgbaston Test – is 13/2. But perhaps the best of the outside bets is the recalled Moeen Ali, at 20/1. He hasn’t played Test cricket since 2021, but he’s been lured back by Bazball, a brand of cricket that is sure to play to his wicket-taking strengths. Yes, he’s liable to go for runs as well, but Stokes’ sole focus is on picking up every available wicket, every single innings. And to date, in his 13 Tests at the helm, his team has never yet come up short.

Presumably, in a Bazball summer, the batters will have their moments too. And no surprises that Joe Root (5/2) and Steve Smith (15/8) are the hot picks to score their team's first hundreds of the Ashes. Jonny Bairstow, England's man of last summer, is longer odds at 15/2, largely because he'll be coming in at No.7.