England v New Zealand: Twenty20 betting

Rather like a character in an old Walt Disney cartoon, the England players' eyes have been replaced by dollar signs this week with the announcement of the winner-takes-all $20million Twenty20 match in November.

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With England set to take on Sir Allen Stanford's All Stars later this year the prospect of earning footballer-like wages for a one-off match will be in the forefront of all of England's current players and squad and one-day captain Paul Collingwood has even declared that he is not sure whether winning that match or the Ashes in 2009 is the bigger target.

The prospect of such riches will fire up the England team ahead of today's Twenty 20 encounter with New Zealand at Old Trafford as the selection process starts here. Both teams have poor Twenty20 records. England have won five of their 13 games to date while New Zealand have won only a third of their 15 contests. The bookies give England the edge at a top-priced 8/11 on the back of their dominance in the recent Test series plus their 2-0 victory in the shortest format of the game earlier this season.

England won by 32 runs in Auckland and then 50 runs in Christchurch and while the Kiwis look like they should have a formidable outfit with Brendon McCullum, Scott Styris and Jacob Oram they have often been found wanting, despite being a very good one-day outfit.

These contests are often decided by the pitches and while Old Traford will not be as fast as it has been in recent years it will play faster than the recent Test match where England recovered to snatch victory. New Zealand will have that memory firmly in focus and will look for revenge of sorts today as well as try to make a statement about why they weren't considered in Stanford's plans.

England do have some in-form players - Ravi Bopara and Dmitri Mascherenas are excellent assets to have in the short format but New Zealand have more of a statement to make and with the return ofd Styris to the fold after the Test series they have a matchwinner wioth both bat and ball.

Verdict: 2pts New Zealand @ 6/5; 1pt Styris man of the match @ 14/1  

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