Australia v England predictions: Curran can boost England morale in third T20

Free cricket tips, best bets and analysis for Australia v England in the third T20 on Friday.

Where to watch

BT Sport 1, 9.10am Friday

Best bets

Sam Curran over 26.5 performance points
2pts 5-6 bet365

Aaron Finch to score over 19.5 runs
1pt 5-6 bet365

Match preview

Twenty20 world champions Australia recalled their first-choice bowling attack for Wednesday's second T20 against England in Canberra but the result was exactly the same as in Sunday's series opener: an eight-run victory for England.

This series is something of a phoney war before the T20 World Cup starts on Sunday so the Aussies will not be too concerned about losing narrowly to England, who are rated one of the main dangers to their 20-over crown.

Both teams are likely to make changes for the third T20 and England are evens to seal a morale-boosting 3-0 clean sweep on Friday morning.

Visiting skipper Jos Buttler will be pleased with the way his side closed out victory in Perth and Canberra and Sam Curran's nerveless death bowling was a highlight of both wins.

The Surrey left-armer missed last year's T20 World Cup due to a back injury but he has made an impressive return to the England side and is worth backing to eclipse bet365's performance line of 26.5.

Curran took 2-23, 2-26 and 1-27 in three matches on the Lahore leg of September's T20 series in Pakistan and his performance make-ups in the first two matches in Australia were 42 and 78.

He is never far from the action in T20 cricket – he opened the batting and the bowling for Chennai Super Kings in the 2020 IPL – and his run-out of Aussie skipper Aaron Finch was a key moment in the first game.

Finch made 12 off seven balls in Perth and was dismissed for 13 in Wednesday's second game but he has been scoring runs more consistently in T20 cricket this year and a runs line of 19.5 looks too low for the experienced opener.

His previous nine innings, against Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India and the West Indies, yielded scores of 55, 61 not out, 24, 29, 22, 31, seven, 58 and 15 and before this series his most recent T20 innings at the Manuka Oval in Canberra were two knocks of 35 against Sri Lanka and India.

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