The Netherlands in 2009 and 2014. Ireland in 2011. And now Scotland in 2018.
England have made an unfortunate habit of being shocked by cricket’s lesser lights – with the latest name on their dishonour roll coming against the Scots on Sunday.
Despite making 365, their joint seventh highest ODI score ever, Eoin Morgan’s men still fell six runs short of Scotland’s score – with Calum McLeod’s unbeaten 140 proving decisive.
England must pick themselves up – with another old enemy, Australia, next up in a five-game series.
We have had a look at the best cricket betting odds and picked out the ones to look out for.
Shaken England still on top of the world
With under a year to go until the Cricket World Cup, England have been growing in confidence, leading many to see them as tournament favourites.
Whether that confidence led to complacency against Scotland remains to be seen – and captain Morgan will be keen to ensure such a slip up doesn’t happen again.
That result shows the difficulties England (or any team) may face in the tournament next year – while the Three Lions had won six successive series before this weekend, that Edinburgh shock shows anything can happen in a one-off game.
Still, England are the number one ranked ODI side in the world for a reason – and have the opportunity to immediately bounce back against Australia.
Despite the result, it wasn’t all doom and gloom for the Three Lions – Jonny Bairstow blitzed a 54-ball hundred, and there were valuable contributions from Alex Hales, Moeen Ali and Liam Plunkett with the bat too.
Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes were notable absentees through injury, however, and their all-round talents will be missed here if they fail to recover mid-series.
England are a short-priced 2/5 with Grosvenorsport.com to win the series.
Australia missing plenty of big names
While it’s only six months since Australia wrapped up the Ashes over England, it will be a very different starting XI that takes the field for the first match of the series at the Oval on Wednesday.
Aside from the obvious difference of this being one-day cricket, rather than Tests, many of the big names from then are missing – for a number of reasons.
Captain Steve Smith and opener David Warner are banned for their part in sandpaper-gate – two of the bedrocks on which the Aussie ODI side has been built on in recent years.
The ‘Fab Three’ of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazelwood and Pat Cummins are also missing, though through injury – which means it’s a very inexperienced Australian side that will be pulling on the green and gold.
Australia – now led by Justin Langer after Darren Lehmann left his position in April, won both of their warm-up matches against Sussex and Middlesex, though weren’t especially convincing while doing so.
The inexperienced Aussies are 2/1 to claim the series victory here.
Back England to bounce back over old enemy Australia
While they were stunned by Scotland on Sunday, England are the best team in the world for a reason, and have proved as much over the past three years.
One bad result doesn’t immediately make them a poor side, and the Three Lions will surely be itching to take out their frustration on a weakened Australia.
When these two met for a fifty-over series in January, England romped to a 4-1 victory – and I can see a similarly one-sided result this time around.
Morgan’s men should win this comfortably – but that Scotland result shows they do have the occasional aberration in their locker.
I don’t think it will be a whitewash, but this England side should be too strong.
I advise backing another 4-1 England series win at 5/2.
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