One more game to prepare. One more game before our World Cup host is labelled false or justified. Thomas Rooney of footballtips.com looks forward to England v Honduras and gives us three facts ahead of the action.

Betfair are offering new customers a HUGE 3/1 on England beating Honduras! 

I don’t know about you, but World Cup fever has well and truly set in now. It’s less than a week to go until non-stop football for a month.

There’s plenty of reasons to be cheerful as an England fan too. We have an exciting young squad and can attack the group stages with confidence.

Before we kick a ball in Brazil though, let me state 3 World Cup FACTS for you. Some you’ll agree with, some you’ll question – but listen up.

FACT ONE – Wayne Rooney is still England’s best player

Yes, you read that correctly. For whatever reason, we’ve decided to pick on our best player ahead of the World Cup. He’s become a bad player overnight it seems.

Now, although it’s refreshing we aren’t as reliant on him – he still has to start and is still the key to our success.

Can we have a successful World Cup without Rooney’s influence? Definitely not. Just imagine him at his best, along with our bright young players.

He has a point to prove too and will work tirelessly for the team. The goal v Ecuador would have done him the world of good.

So – stop the Rooney bashing and watch him fly this summer. In fact, why not sign-up to Totesport and get 5/1 on him being England’s top scorer?

FACT TWO – England will beat Honduras 

It’s crunch time for Roy Hodgson and the starting XI you see against Honduras is likely to be that he goes with against Italy.

The Ecuador game was the time to experiment, this is time to prepare for the Italians. I’m certainly looking forward to seeing who he goes for.

Refreshingly, we’ve got plenty of choice and although Ross Barkley is getting all the praise – don’t be surprised to see him start on the bench for this one.

We can then unleash him against a tiring Italy defence!

I’d expect:

Hart; Johnson, Cahill, Jagielka, Baines; Henderson, Gerrard; Lallana, Rooney, Welbeck; Sturridge

It would be great to see The Ox flying down the left wing ahead of Welbeck, but injury puts a stop to that. Raheem Sterling is then suspended.

Regardless, it’s a very strong team this and one that will be focused on this final warm-up game. We expect the Three Lions to win and win well!

If you’re as confident as we are, head over to Betfair and get 3/1 on England!

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FACT THREE – Brazil will win the World Cup

I’ve believed for some time now that Brazil are well and truly the team to beat. They will deliver the goods too.

Neymar comes alive in a Brazil shirt and with his influence, home advantage and a settled back four – they will be very, very tough to stop.

Just look at the Confederations Cup last year – they stormed to victory and the pressure was there. Perhaps not as much as it is now – but it showed how comfortable they are playing on their home turf.

With this in mind, don’t miss out on 8/1 for Brazil to win the World Cup over at Paddy Power.

6 days to go – Bring it on!

According to reports in the Sunday Telegraph, Chelsea are ready to launch a second offer worth more than £25m for Leicester City midfielder Danny Drinkwater having already had one for £15m rejected by the Foxes earlier in the summer.

What’s the word, then?

Well, the Sunday Telegraph says that the Blues are ready to make another offer for the England international as they look to bring in three new players before the window slams shut at the end of this month.

The Sunday Telegraph says that Drinkwater has been left in the dark over his future and he missed out on Leicester’s 4-3 defeat to Arsenal in their opening Premier League match of the season at the Emirates on Friday night because of injury.

The report adds that the 27-year-old is willing to make the move to Stamford Bridge despite the fact that he could find himself behind N’Golo Kante, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Cesc Fabregas in the pecking order, although the latter duo are currently missing through injury and suspension respectively.

How did Drinkwater do last season?

Following an outstanding 2015/16 campaign when the Foxes won the Premier League title against all the odds, like many of his Leicester teammates the 27-year-old failed to live up to those performances again last term.

The Three Lions midfielder scored one goal and provided a further three assists in 43 appearances in all competitions, while he showed his defensive capabilities by making 60 clearances and 40 interceptions in 29 English top flight outings.

Would he be a good signing for Chelsea?

He certainly would be.

While the Blues have Kante in the middle of the park, they have sold Nemanja Matic to Manchester United and can’t be sure that Bakayoko will be an instant and successful replacement for the Serbian.

There is no doubt that Antonio Conte needs further reinforcements in central midfield and Drinkwater would provide some much-needed depth, and comes with both Premier League and Champions League experience following his exploits with Leicester.

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The 27-year-old became well known for his through-balls through the middle and into the channels for the likes of Jamie Vardy at the King Power Stadium, but it remains to be seen whether that style of play would be utilised for Eden Hazard, Alvaro Morata and Pedro.

Otago’s Chris Gaffaney performed an almost single-handed demolition job on Canterbury in their Shell Super Max match at Gore’s Hamilton Park yesterday.He was into the game after only three balls in the first innings, after Otago chose to bat first.While he had a single to get his eye in from the first ball faced, his next was a six speared over third man, not the sort of thing to endear himself to bowler Warren Wisneski.It was typical of much of the mischief he got up to on the day.Shane Bond was the next bowler to disappear into the Gaffaney agitator as successive fours were taken as Otago made the most of a solid start.Andrew Hore had been largely insignificant at the other end but given the chance in the third over, he blasted a huge six behind square from Wisneski.The first Max hit of the day came in style, a Gaffaney lofted straight drive over the sightscreen at the western end of the ground. Shane Bond, the victim, became Bond the liberated next ball when Ben Yock completed a tidy catch.Gaffaney spent only 13 balls at the crease in making his 37.Scott Waide wasted no time on a sighter, his first ball was six into the Max zone.The tempo slowed a little however, as Stephen Cunis and Darren Reekers took over and Waide was eventually out caught at long-off by Cleighten Cornelius.Life in the Max zone became even more dangerous when Mark Billcliff arrived. He produced carbon copy efforts from Darren Reekers with lofted on drives.It was the perfect impetus for the Otago innings and he departed to the first ball of the ninth over with Otago 126-4.Burson did a superb job for Canterbury when conceding only eight runs from the ninth over. Craig Pryor then carried the side to 150 in the last over, the final ball being driven into the Max zone for eight.Andrew Hore batted throughout the innings and was 20 not out.Otago kept the pressure on from the outset as Canterbury, courtesy of some good fielding, especially a superb outfield throw from Chris Gaffaney which saw Brendan McCullum complete some fine cricket to dismiss Hamish Barton, which left Canterbury 40-3.Then in the next over danger man Warren Wisneski, who had blasted a ball from Black Caps call up Kerry Walmsley well over the mid-wicket boundary for six, was caught in the deep by Warren McSkimming.Shane Bond then took the innings into his own hands, with minimal success. One skied shot backward of square was dropped by Chris Gaffaney and two runs were taken.But moving the ball around to mid-wicket next ball proved an error as Lee Germon proved as safe under the higher ball as Jeff Wilson when he played fullback for Otago.The first ball Stephen Cunis faced, from Mark Billcliff, was also his last, bowled for a duck. Canterbury was 46-7.The follow-on mark of 100 was avoided only in the penultimate over when Cornelius hit two Max sixes from Craig Pryor’s bowling.From the first ball of the last over, bowled by Karl O’Dowda, Ben Yock blasted a superb six over the Max zone but was out to the next ball.But the best Canterbury could do was finish with 122, conceding a first innings lead of 28.Mark Billcliff was especially effective with his bowling taking 3-7 off two overs.In its second innings, Otago looked like losing its way when only 35-2 from four overs.But Gaffaney came to the rescue again. He hit five fours in succession, including one Max hit, and a single, to take 25 runs from the fifth over.That was nothing to the carnage that came subsequently. Twenty-four runs came off the sixth over in which Gaffaney posted his half century with a Max hit for four.In the eighth over, the Gaffaney Wrecking Company was in full force as he took 31 of 33 runs to come from Darren Reekers’ over, including two Max sixes.Then after delicately, by his standards, cutting Cornelius for four, he blasted the next ball for six over mid-wicket. He had scored 103 off 26 balls. He was out attempting to repeat the mid-wicket blast, but miscued slightly and was caught at square leg.Canterbury was left chasing a target of 183 to claim the win.Reekers led the early assault with two sixes and a Max six before he was caught by Craig Pryor from Warren McSkimming’s bowling with his 25 coming from only six balls.It wasn’t until Shane Bond and Cornelius were united that the innings picked up impetus with Cornelius flicking successive sixes from Kerry Walmsley to long leg. However, once Cornelius was out in the sixth over, and then Stephen Cunis followed next ball, the fire had departed the Canterbury effort.After only seven runs were taken from the eighth over, Danny Bulman tried to guide a ball fine through the slips. But an ever alert Brendan McCullum snared a fine diving catch to create even more problems for Canterbury.Ryan Burson had time to blast a Max six but going into the last over Canterbury needed 48 to win with only two wickets available.Ben Yock gave it every effort as Otago lined the Max zone. He hit a six and two Max sixes to get Canterbury to within 15 runs of Otago’s combined total.

Play in the final session of the Pura Cup match between New South Wales and Western Australia has lasted only nine overs after rain and thunderstorms hit the NorthSydney Oval this afternoon.After being dismissed for 226 in their first innings just on the point of tea, the Blues went out in search of early wickets to give themselves a chance of capturing twopoints in bowler friendly conditions. When the players left the field at 4:48pm the Warriors were 1/37 following the dismissal of Mike Hussey (1) who continued agenerally disappointing run this season.Ryan Campbell (30) was scoring at a rate of better than a run a ball prior to stumps, amassing his runs off twenty-nine deliveries in an innings which included fiveboundaries. Simon Katich joined Campbell following Hussey’s dismissal and is unbeaten on six.Nathan Bracken made the early breakthrough when he bowled Hussey.Don Nash was the Blues bowler to bear the brunt of the Campbell onslaught, conceding thirty off his opening five overs. Bracken, meanwhile, had the far morerespectable figures of 1/7 alongside his name from his four overs.Today’s play saw eleven wickets fall for 263 runs in an up and down day for both teams. After early wickets fell, the Blues were struggling at 5/49 before a middleand lower order revival, headed by Brad Haddin (87) and Mark Higgs (34), swelled the score to 226.

England will play a Test in Sharjah for the first time after the schedule for their tour of UAE to face Pakistan in October and November was confirmed. The team will fly out to the Middle East just two weeks after the one-day series against Australia concludes.The trip will include three Tests, which begins on October 13 in Abu Dhabi, followed by matches in Dubai and Sharjah. The Tests will be followed by four ODIs from November 11 to 20, before the tour concludes with a three-match T20 series held between November 26 and 30.The confirmation of the tour schedule had faced delay due to tensions created by the links between Ten Sports, the host broadcaster, and the Essel Group, which has threatened to form a breakaway international league. ESPNcricinfo understands that pressure had been applied by the BCCI on other cricket boards not to play any series in which Ten Sports are the host broadcaster after the PCB recently signed a five-year deal with them.On England’s previous visit to UAE to play Pakistan – during which Pakistan whitewashed the Test series 3-0 but lost both the ODI and T20 contests – the internationals were split between Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but Sharjah returned as a Test venue in November 2011, nine years after it had previously hosted matches, and has since hosted matches involving Sri Lanka and New Zealand.

England tour of UAE

September 30, England depart
Oct 5-6, Pakistan A, Sharjah
Oct 8-9, Pakistan A, Sharjah
Oct 13-17, 1st Test, Abu Dhabi
Oct 22-26, 2nd Test, Dubai
Nov 1-5, 3rd Test, Sharjah
Nov 8, one-day practice match, Abu Dhabi
Nov 11, 1st ODI, Abu Dhabi
Nov 13, 2nd ODI, Abu Dhabi
Nov 17, 3rd ODI, Sharjah
Nov 20, 4th ODI, Dubai
Nov 23, T20 v UAE XI, Abu Dhabi
Nov 26, 1st T20, Dubai
Nov 27, 2nd T20, Dubai
Nov 30, 3rd T20, Sharjah

The last time England played an international at the venue was during a triangular series in 1999 which formed an odd build-up to that year’s World Cup, which was held in England. On this tour, they will also play an ODI and a T20 at the ground.The tour will be Trevor Bayliss’ first overseas assignment with England and one of his main challenges will be to try and ensure his team do not flounder against spin as they did on the previous trip in early 2012. England, who were the No. 1 ranked Test team at the time, were flummoxed by the spin of Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman as the pair shared 43 wickets across the three Tests.England may not face either on this trip – Ajmal has not played Test cricket since returning from remodelling his bowling action and is currently not involved in any format for Pakistan, while Rehman has not played internationals for a year – but the current spinners, legspinner Yasir Shah and left-armer Zulfiqar Babar, have enjoyed considerable success.The pair caused Australia significant problems in the series in the UAE last year. Yasir, in particular, has 61 wickets in 10 Tests after claiming 24 at 19.33 in the recent series in Sri Lanka.Following the conclusion of the tour, England will return home for a short period before leaving for South Africa – another full tour which includes four Tests, five ODIs and two T20s. That will be followed by the World Twenty20 in India during March.England’s red-ball and white-ball teams have now diverged to such a point that there are very few players that appear in all formats, but the likes of Joe Root, Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes and perhaps Moeen Ali could be expected to be first choice for Tests, ODIs and T20s, and may require careful handling from the management.

Paul Farbrace, the former Sri Lanka assistant coach, has said that Kumar Sangakkara is the “most professional” cricketer he has seen at training, and had helped him become a better coach. Farbrace, now England’s assistant coach, had two stints with the Sri Lanka team. He was assistant coach under Trevor Bayliss from 2007 to 2009, and was briefly head coach, from January to April 2014.”Kumar is, without doubt, the most professional I have ever seen in practice,” Farbrace said. “I’ve never seen anyone practise like him. Some get close, but his desire to be the best he can be is unbelievable. The day before a match he is – in the nicest sense – a complete pain. His practice has to be top quality.”He watches videos of bowlers to work out when he should be making his movements. It takes a lot of thought. It takes a lot of understanding. He is a cricketing genius.”Farbrace had been with Sri Lanka when Sangakkara led them to the World T20 final in 2009, and had also overseen the 2014 World T20 victory. Sangakkara’s highest Test-match aggregate – 424 against Bangladesh – also came under Farbrace’s watch.”Kumar taught me a very valuable coaching lesson,” Farbrace said. “He is very specific about his left foot. It moves from middle and leg to middle and off. Never back and across, never forward – it never opens. I was watching him in the nets and concentrating more on the bowlers than him. But after about 10 balls he asked how his foot was looking. I told him it looked great, as he had been hitting the ball nicely.”After the net, he took me to one side and said, ‘Next time I ask you a question like that, be honest with me. Three times my foot went back and across towards leg stump, not the other way, and I don’t want any false information.’ That was a huge lesson for me. I should have said I hadn’t been watching. I should have been honest. I learned so much from him. And I know the players around him learned from that level of professionalism.”Farbrace also lauded both Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene as “world-class people as well as world-class players”.”I recall we had a Test in Kandy once when I was unwell. First he took me to a doctor for treatment to help me get over an ear infection, and then we stopped at a local ground where he had a bat on a concrete net in front of his dad.”His dad has clearly been a constant throughout his career. He pushed and encouraged him when he was young and he continued to provide advice and reassurance. Anyway, Kumar never forgot how he had become successful. Even when he was at his peak, he would go back to see his dad and make sure no faults had crept into his game.”Sangakkara averages 54.07 away from home, and Farbrace said it is his versatility that makes him a great cricketer. “I’ve seen him score 192 against Brett Lee at his quickest in Hobart and I’ve seen him score 150 on a turning pitch against the best spin bowlers. He had to adapt and adjust. That takes so much planning and ability.Farbrace has been a force behind the drive to get Jayawardene into a temporary consultancy role with England. He said Sangakkara was also quick to share his experience with other cricketers.”Kumar is very good at deflecting credit towards other people. He always talks about how good Mahela is and how much he has inspired their nation. He talks about him being their greatest captain. But he has given so much to his country and so much to the game. I have got him to talk to England players in the past. He will share his knowledge with anyone who has the passion that he has.”I don’t think the Sri Lankan team will realise quite how big a contribution he has made until he is no longer there.”

ScorecardAxar Patel followed up his unbeaten 69 with a four-for to dismantle South Africa A•PTI

Left-arm spinner Axar Patel took four wickets without conceding a run in six overs on the fourth day in Wayanad, spinning South Africa A out for 76 in 31.4 overs and securing victory for India A by an innings and 81 runs.Axar’s spell of 6-6-0-4 gave him match figures of 9 for 92, to go with his 69 in India A’s innings.After having declared overnight on 417 for 8, with a first-innings lead of 157, India A’s push for victory was started by Axar, who bowled Reeza Hendricks for 1 in the fourth over. By the 14th over, South Africa A had lost their top three for 23 runs, Shardul Thakur and offspinner Jayant Yadav accounting for Gihahn Cloete and Stiaan van Zyl.There was little resistance from the visitors as Temba Bavuma, Omphile Ramela and Dane Vilas fell in quick succession, Axar accounting for two of those three wickets. Quinton de Kock was the top-scorer with 20, but he fell to Jayant two overs after Axar removed Dane Piedt. Once Karn Sharma trapped Lonwabo Tsotsobe lbw, South Africa A’s innings came to an end on 76 because last man Beuran Hendricks was absent hurt following an injury sustained while bowling.

ScorecardFile Photo – Arup Das and Krishna Das shared all 10 wickets from the Odisha innings•PTI

Seamer Krishna Das took 7 for 21 to bowl Odisha out for 88 and give Assam, who had made only 92 yesterday, an almost inconceivable first-innings lead. Assam then managed to cobble a total in triple-figures, finishing on 137 for 8 at stumps. The Cuttack pitch afforded 15 wickets on Thursday and 13 today, so any advantage seems vital and the visitors are 141 runs ahead.Krishna and Arup Das, who took 3 for 45, took care of all the Odisha batsmen. Only Natraj Behera and Anurag Sarangi managed to get double-figure scores and Odisha’s best partnership – 22 runs – was put on by the ninth wicket.But the help that was available to the fast bowlers meant the hosts were able to reel in some of the ground they lost. Suryakant Pradhan struck twice in the second over of Assam’s second innings to dismiss Kunal Saikia and Gokul Sharma for ducks. At the other end, Basant Mohanty removed Amit Verma, also for a duck, to leave the visitors on 13 for 3.By the 45th over Assam were 86 for 6. But coming in at No. 7 Syed Mohammad struck 42 off 158 balls with four fours to record the highest score of the match so far and perhaps tempt his team into contemplating an away victory.
ScorecardOvernight rain followed by intermittent showers on the second day resulted in only 16.2 overs being bowled in the Group A game between Bengal and Rajasthan at the Eden Gardens.The start of the match was delayed by an over hour. Resuming from 104 for 3, Rajasthan lost two wickets while putting on 38 runs. Pragyan Ojha got the first when he went through the defences of Ashok Menaria in the 43rd over while Ashok Dinda had Puneet Yadav caught for 14 in the 50th.Ojha came back to dismiss Arjit Gupta for 5 in the 59th over but then the weather intervened. Only 59.4 overs have been possible after two days. Karnatka v Vidarbha in Bangalore – Satish 81* leads VidarbhaDelhi v Haryana in Delhi – Sehwag threat looms

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Persistent rain washed out the fourth day too•BCCI

Any hopes India had of forcing an unlikely result were blown away after another day’s play was washed out in Bangalore. We have now had only one day’s play in this Test. The last time three days were washed out in a Test in India was 10 years ago, in Chennai against Sri Lanka. This time, too, all the wet weather is coming Bangalore’s way from India’s east coast.The rain did finally relent, though, on day four. It did not rain till 1.45pm, but the ground was considered fit only for a 2pm start. Before 2pm could arrive, though, the rain did.

Glamorgan recorded a remarkable 113 run victory over Hampshire in their quarter-final match of the Benson and Hedges Cup. The Welsh county bowled out Hampshire for just 69 to secure a home tie against Surrey in the semi-finals of the competition at Cardiff on May 27th.Earlier in the day, Hampshire appeared to be in the driving seat after putting Glamorgan in to bat in rather sultry and oppressive conditions at Sophia Gardens. Glamorgan`s early batsmen struggled against Hampshire’s veteran seamer Peter Hartley, who dismissed both openers – Croft and Elliott – in an opening spell of 8-4-15-2. When Dimitri Mascarenhas dismissed skipper Matthew Maynard for 6, Glamorgan slumped to 31-3. A partial recovery began with Mike Powell making a composed 29 with 4 fours, before being tempted down the wicket by Shane Warne and being stumped by acting wicket-keeper Derek Kenway. The wily Australian claimed a second scalp when Steve James was caught at slip, and with Glamorgan on 83-5 in the 32nd over, Hampshire seemed to be well on top.But the complexion of the game changed in the next 18 overs, thanks to Adrian Dale and Keith Newell who shared a partnership of 99 for the sixth wicket. Mixing defence with aggression, Dale and Newell transfomed the game, adding 66 runs in the final 10 overs. Dale made a watchful 63* off 90 balls, whilst Newell struck 4 fours and their doughty partnership was only ended when Newell was run out off the last ball of the innings, one short an excellent fifty.Despite their efforts, many in the crowd still fancied Hampshire, especially as the cloud cover had now disappeared over the Cardiff ground. But the slow, low Sophia Gardens wicket is notoriously one where the side batting first has an advantage, and Hampshire were soon in trouble against the accurate seam bowling of Owen Parkin. He took the first three wickets – all leg before – dismissing Kenway for 1 in his second over, Will Kendall for 0 in his third over, and Jason Laney for 5 in his sixth over, to finish with career best figures of 3-16 from 8 overs.Steve Watkin was also in miserly form at the other end, bowling three maiden overs to begin with, before getting the prized wicket of Robin Smith thanks to a fine catch in the gully by Matthew Elliott. Next ball, Watkin dismissed John Stephenson leg before for a duck, and Hampshire had slumped to 16-5 in the 12th over.Giles White survived the hat-trick ball, but he too struggled against the accurate Watkin who completed a remarkable spell with figures of 7-5-3-2. It was then the turn of man-of-the-match Adrian Dale to wreak havoc with the ball, dismissing White leg before and then getting Mascarenhas caught behind by Adrian Shaw after a half hour vigil without scoring a run. AlexWharf then bowled Shane Warne to leave Hampshire on 38-8, and as some home supporters began to sing “Bread of Heaven”, others began thumbing through the record books to find out the lowest total in the competition.Shaun Udal and Alan Mullally guided their side past the previous low of 50, before Keith Newell came on to claim the wicket of Mullally, caught on the square leg boundary by Mike Powell. In his next over, Newell finished the innings by catching Udal off his own bowling, and with Hampshire all out for 69, the Glamorgan team were able to celebrate a place in the semi-finals of the competition for the first time since 1988, and only the second time in the club`s history.