All square at oval decider

With one win apiece in their NatWest Trophy series, England and Australia head for the third and final ODI at The Oval on Tuesday with the n...

With one win apiece in their NatWest Trophy series, England and Australia head for the third and final ODI at The Oval on Tuesday with the next few weeks at stake. Whoever wins this match will go into the Ashes next week with the upper hand

MIND GAMES

8226; England would be targeting the weak links 8212; Jason Gillespie and Matthew Hayden. Indeed, given Gillespie8217;s form, Australia might not play four pacers at the Oval. Is he a spent force already at 30?

And to a lesser extent, England must ensure Michael Clarke doesn8217;t get a good score going into the Test series

8226; Australia, as Shane Warne wrote in a newspaper article, would like to get openers Marcus Trescothick and Andrew Strauss cheaply. If they can get the southpaws for next to nothing, the others will have to face Glenn McGrath with the red cherry at the Lord8217;s, the toughest act of their careers. Strauss needs to ensure that he gets a good score especially after announcing that Australia has been stripped of its aura of invincibility. And no batsman has scored more runs 519 in eight matches and hundreds 3 than Trescothick at the Oval

Toss

The substitution rule, teamed up with bowler friendly conditions on both the pitches, have made the toss much more of a gamble. It worked out perfectly for England in the first match where they batted second and could use their 8216;specialist batsman8217; supersub.

In the second game, batting first, they couldn8217;t even bring Vikram Solanki in.

No scope for radical use of the new rules because both teams have refrained from picking an all-rounder as the supersub. Both the games would not have gone too differently in the orthodox format.

Oval facts

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8226; In four England-Australia encounters at The Oval, teams batting second have won three times

8226; Highest score: 253

8226; In 2001, Australia bowled England out for 176

8226; In the only match at the venue in the last 10 years between the two sides, three members of the current England squad had forgettable games. Trescothick and Gough got a duck, Collingwood got 9; Gough and Collingwood were collared by Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting conceding 60 runs in 9 combined overs.