England v Australia Prediction: Living it large if Liam delivers at 15/2 in 2nd ODI

England host Australia at Headingley on Saturday for the 2nd ODI with a start time of 11:00, a match broadcast live on Sky Sports Cricket.     

Jamie Pacheco showed a profit again in the 1st ODI and has 15/2 and 7/5 picks ahead of this one to keep us interested as he previews the action and takes us through his England vs Australia Predictions...

1st ODI Recap  

England missed a good opportunity to go 1-0 up in the Series after leaving a good 20-25 runs out there when batting first and getting themselves into such a strong position. In the end, the Aussies won comfortably thanks to a big hundred from the brilliant Travis Head but a bigger total by England may have changed all that. Bad news for them, bad news for us and our 7/5 bet on the hosts.  

Sean Abbott had a poor day with the ball, being expensive and going wicketless so that bet didn't win, either.  

But we were always going to end the day in profit by the halfway mark after Ben Duckett's 95 at better-than-a-run-a-ball was 32 runs better than the next best, Will Jacks. A winner on the left-handed opener means we finished the day 1.3 points in profit, a decent start to the Series.  

England  

A few England batsmen can look back at their dismissals and wonder if they could have done things differently, but that's the way they want to play and good on them.  

Five of their Top Seven scored at a strike rate of over 100, so you can't be wanting them to be nice and aggressive just like they are in the Tests, and then complain when they get out playing big shots.  

Still, Duckett and Harry Brook will both wonder how they got out caught and bowled to part-time bowler Marnus Labuschagne, while they really should have at least batted out their overs, rather than being all out with two balls to spare.  

That Top 7 is likely to remain the same with changes being rung among the bowlers, instead.  

Jofra Archer was expensive but more to the point, they won't want to be playing him in an ODI twice in three days, so he'll probably get a rest, with Gus Atkinson likely to come in for him.    

Brydon Carse had a poor day too so Gus Atkinson could replace him, with Saqib Mahmood, Reece Topley, Josh Hull and John Turner other options.  

Possible XI:  Salt, Duckett, Jacks, Brook, Smith, Livingstone, Bethell, Atkinson Rashid, Potts, Topley/Hull/Turner.  

Australia  

Australia's batting was excellent. We already know about Head but Labuschagne batted beautifully too (in addition to 3-39 with the ball) with 77 off 61 and Steve Smith and Cameron Green made good contributions as well.  

They used eight bowlers, mostly because Ben Dwarshius was the latest injury casualty and hobbled off after bowling just four on debut.  

Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc were both unwell ahead of the game but assuming they recover, one should come in for the unfortunate Dwarshius.  

Glenn Maxwell was also unavailable but should play here. Cameron Green might make way after featuring in all three of the matches on this Tour so far so may be due a rest.   

Possible XI: Head, Marsh, Smith, Labuschagne, Maxwell/Green, Carey, Short, Hardie, Abbott, Hazlewood/Starc, Zampa.  

Pitch and conditions  

We're at Headingley where England won six in a row between 2014 and 2019 before losing to Sri Lanka here during the 2019 World Cup. Both in 2022 and 2023 they had matches here that were washed out, against South Africa and Ireland respectively.  

In the four matches played here during the World Cup, the last four completed games at Leeds, the first innings scores were as follows: 

264/7 by Sri Lanka- chased by India.  

311/6 by West Indies- defended against Afghanistan.  

227/9 by Afghanistan- chased by Pakistan.  

232/9 by Sri Lanka- Defended against England.  

So hard to say what to expect in terms of a par score might be but the sun should be out and this can be a good wicket when that happens; so around 280 could be what they're aiming for.  

England vs Australia 2nd ODI Odds

Australia are 4/7 and after what we saw on Thursday, it's hard to argue with that price.  

As Stuart Broad rightly said in the aftermath: if Australia are beating you comfortably and still have Starc, Maxwell and Hazlewood to come into the side, things aren't going to get any easier. They're on a 13-match unbeaten run in ODIs by the way.  

Of course, it's not every day that Labuschagne is going to go out and take three wickets but whoever plays, they'll have at least eight bowling options again. So if one guy has a bad day, there are plenty of other options available.  

A wait to see if Australia reach evens in-play might be the way to go, with England's bowling too suspect to consider a play on them at 11/8 pre-match.  

*You can check out all of our markets and Cricket Odds over at betfred.com

England Top Bowler 

Price is everything as we know and Liam Livingstone at 15/2 to be England Top Bowler is one of the better ones.  

With one wicket, he was in a three-way tie with Jacob Bethell and Matthew Potts on Thursday and given he was a similar price ahead of the match, even splitting his odds three ways in a dead heat would have returned a decent profit on him.  

His figures look a bit worse than they should have been simply because Labuschagne and Head were in a hurry to finish the match and he took some tap in those last few overs. But crucially, he was given nine overs, a sign that England see him as a bit more than just a part-timer. And after bowling so well in the T20Is and decently the other day, should go well here.   

The fact that no-one is bowling particularly well for England, bar Adil Rashid who was economical but did go wicketless, is an important consideration too, of course.