England v South Africa - Fourth Test

We hope you filled your boots with South Africa's Test series win because we've got to say we not only enjoyed riding our money home - but also watching the Poms get pumped. If you have been living under a rock and haven't heard by now, Michael Vaughan took the loss so badly he resigned from the captaincy in tears and has also been dumped from the side. Vaughan went the same way as former England captain Nasser Hussain in 2003 - falling on his sword after being outwitted and outperformed by South Africa's astute Graeme Smith.

The fourth and final Test at The Oval might officially be a 'dead rubber' but you can be assured there will be plenty of feeling with ex-South African Kevin Pietersen appointed captain of the Poms. There is no love lost between Pietersen and Smith and one of the most interesting scenes of this match could be their forced handshake before the toss.

In England team news, Steve Harmison returns to the side to take the new ball for then first time in over a year. He comes in for the injured Ryan Sidebottom who we always thought was a dud anyway. Youngster Stuart Broad wins back his bowling spot and Ian Bell moves to No.3 with the bat and Andy Flintoff up to his favoured No.6, where he has been a matchwinner on many occasions.

For South Africa, Dale Steyn is again set to miss with injury while Smith is under something of a cloud with back stiffness.

Hopefully your cricket punting wallet is full of cash after the Proteas series win - as we are going to go out on a limb and plump for England to win the final Test at what we think are over the oods.

The Poms - after they should have won the first Test - have been comprehensively outplayed in the last two Tests but we think some new faces and new enthusiasm could win the day here. Flintoff also now has two Tests under his belt in his comeback and he appears to be improving and getting more confident by the minute. You also can't underestimate the impact of Pietersen in his first Test as captain. How many times have you seen in footy where a coach or a captain is sacked and the team goes out and wins the next week?

We suggest the same could easily happen here. England will be desperate to show something while South Africa will head home happy regardless of the result of this Test. The Proteas are a very impressive team but they may have fired all their bullets in this series. It's hard being 'up' for so long away from home. England, if they can gel as a team under Pietersen, are a great chance of springing an upset.

There have been some high scoring draws at the Oval over the years but we think the draw is usually unders, there are very few of them these days. So let's have a simple one unit bet on the Poms at either $4.33 on BlueSquare, $4.30 at Bill Hurley and Davidson or $4.25 at Betstar.

© 2008 Punting Ace.com

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