New Zealand v England Tips: Top Bowler

The first Test between New Zealand and England gets underway this evening and in a short three-match series our betting options are limited.

New Zealand are a difficult team to gauge, they have some excellent players like Brendon McCullum, Ross Taylor and Tim Southee but lack strength in depth. From a betting perspective they are best passed over.

England are overwhelming 2/7 (Stan James) favourites to win the Test series, an indication of their likely dominance but I’d avoid the top batsman market.

With only three Tests in the series, each batsman is going to get a maximum of six innings. If England dominate, that could diminish to perhaps only four visits to the crease. If a batsman were to get a couple of ‘jaffers’ his runs tally would look mediocre very quickly, with few opportunities to put the record straight.

The market to play is the top England wicket taker.

England Bowling Record

Record in NZ / AUS / SA last five years only

Steven Finn and James Anderson should relish the ‘English’ type conditions in New Zealand, with the ball swinging and seaming early in the innings. Both of England’s strike bowlers have excellent records in the southern hemisphere if you group New Zealand, Australia and South Africa together and they showed good form in the one-day series taking seven (Anderson) and five (Finn) wickets.

There is very little to chose between the pair but at bigger odds Steven Finn represents the value at 3/1 (Paddy Power).