England v New Zealand: Fifth ODI betting

Despite losing the fourth one-day international, being accused of bringing the spirit of cricket into disrepute and having their captain Paul Collingwood banned for four matches, England are still favourites for the fifth and final ODI at Lord's on Saturday.

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England enter the 'must-win' game as the 4/6 jollies and with Kevin Pietersen as acting captain, after Collingwood received a ban for his side's slow over rate at the Brit Oval, questions must be asked why England are ajudged by the bookmakers to be the better side, despite trailing 2-1 in the series and showing lots of signs of weakness throughout the series.

Are England a better one-day team than New Zealand - no. Both sides are lacking confidence and have limited batting line-ups, but England's claims to level the series are at best highly questionable.

With the likes of Owais Shah and Ravi Bopara getting scores but failing to press on last Wednesday and the long tail exposed starting with Tim Ambrose at seven, England's are not capable of posting big enough scores. If Pietersen or Ian Bell fail to fire then the team do not have enough runs in them to give the bowlers a fair crack. The bowlers have kept them in the matches to date but as well as Stuart Broad and more recently Ryan Sidebottom have bowled they cannot be expected to keep producing the goods.

New Zealand's passions for the contest were re-ignited in mid-week when the teams were embroiled in controversy after the run-out of Grant Elliott. Daniel Vettori's side will want to press the message home at Lord's and with a lower batting order that houses the in-form Kyle Mills and with Ross Taylor due a big score further up the order expect the Kiwis to seal a 3-1 win at the home of cricket.

Verdict: 2pts New Zealand @ 5/4; 1pt Ross Taylor top NZ runscorer @ 5/1  

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