England target unbeaten Ashes series as Prior salvages draw
Published:A century from Matt Prior spared England’s blushes against Victoria in Melbourne last weekend, but the England camp continue to be optimistic that they can end this Ashes series unbeaten.
England are 6/4 to win the third Test which starts in Perth on Thursday and 12/1 to win the Ashes 4-0, and Matt Prior sees no reason why England can’t achieve that goal.
“If we carry on playing the brand of cricket we have been, there is certainly no reason why we can’t go through the tour unbeaten,” said Prior.
“It would be a fantastic feat and it is something we are certainly targeting.”
Should England fulfil Matt Prior’s declaration that they can end this Ashes series unbeaten, it will be only the third time in Australia’s 133 year Test cricketing history that they will have been whitewashed on their home soil.
Both of those whitewashes have fallen at the hands of England, in an acrimonious seven Test tour in 1970, 82 years after the first whitewash in 1887-88.
Considering Australia have played 374 Test matches across 102 series in Australia, the fact they have only ever lost two of those without winning a Test suggests they are good for a win in one of the final three Tests.
At 7/4 to win the third Test, Australia enter a Test match on home soil as the underdogs for the first time in recent memory.
A 1-1 series draw is priced at 7/1 and considering the bowling performance of England’s squad bowlers in Melbourne last week where they only took eight wickets, coupled with Australia’s poor attack, the batsman could bat out the rest of this series.
A draw in the third Test is priced at 2/1 but in the draw no bet market Australia are priced at 1/1.
A £10 stake on Australia winning the Ashes 2-1 would return £90. New customers can sign up here for a free £10 bet.
