Aussies 10-11 to go 2-1 up

SPORTS BETTING: 

AUSTRALIA are red-hot favourites to win the Ashes series against England following their destruction of our boys at Lord’s.

It was men against boys stuff with Australia ruthlessly efficient with the bat and their bowlers nothing short of destructive despite a benign pitch.

It would be easy to write off England on the basis of this humiliating defeat, but I think the selectors would be wrong to make wholesale changes - after all, this was the same side that beat Australia in Cardiff a week earlier.

To my mind, the difference between the sides was greatly exaggerated by the tourists winning the toss and batting first. England spent the best part of a day and three quarters in the field and their batsmen were shot at when it was their turn.

Mental fatigue and scoreboard pressure contributed to some terrible shot selection and I suspect we will see an improvement in next week’s third Test at Edgbaston.

Not surprisingly, the Aussies are 10-11 to win that game, with England 100-30 shots and the draw 11-4.



JORDAN Spieth came agonisingly close to winning his third major of the year in the Open and already he is hot favourite at 11-2 to make amends in the USPGA Championship at Whistling Straits, Wisconsin, next month.

Rory McIlroy, attempting to come back from injury, is ludicrously short at 7-1, while Dustin Johnson, a

14-1 chance, looks mentally fragile once he gets into contention, so it all points to another Spieth master class.

twitter: @KeithMcHughOC