England slashed to 2/5 to win the Ashes after second Test victory
Published:Ricky Ponting will be a deflated man this morning after witnessing an England team demolish his Australian side in his 150th Test match.
It took England just 90 minutes to ravage Australia’s lower order and Andrew Strauss’s side now take a 1-0 series lead into the third Test which starts in Perth in nine days time.
The innings and 71 run victory means England are now the 2/5 favourites to win the Ashes, and are 1/9 to retain the Ashes.
But the ease of England’s victory suggest there are more to come and with three Test matches left in the series, England are as short as 12/1 to win the series 4-0, but Australia are 14/1 to win the next three Tests and take the series 3-1.
After all his talk following the close of play on the fourth day, Graeme Swann delivered with a five-wicket haul and has now taken nine wickets in the series, joint leader in the race to be the leading series wicket-taker with Steven Finn.
James Anderson is just one wicket behind his two team-mates on eight wickets for the series, but the closest Australian challenger is Peter Siddle who is on six wickets for the series.
Kevin Pietersen’s magnificent knock of 227 has put him back into contention to win the race to be England’s leading Ashes runscorer – he is now on 270 runs for the series, but is still 180 runs behind Alastair Cook.
Mike Hussey continues to fight for the Ashes despite the apparent lack of ambition surrounding him in the Australian side, and the man who averages 67.12 runs against England is 5/1 to be Australia’s leading 1st innings runscorer in the third Test.
Alastair Cook will be looking for his third successive century in the first innings of the third Test and the opener is 4/1 to be England’s top runscorer in the first innings of the third Test.
A £10 stake on England winning the series 4-0 would return £150. New customers can sign up here for a free £10 bet.
