England looking to salvage pride

South Africa's win over New Zealand means England are out of the WorldTwenty20 so now it's just pride they have to play for when they meet India on Wednesday.

Having narrowly lost to New Zealand in their first Super Eight match, India will be smarting but they are playing well enough to at least go into the match with confidence. While England may pretend they still care, morale is low and I'd be surprised if too many of the team perform to their ability.

The two sides only recently played a seven-match one-day series, of course, with England coming out on top 4-3 but that is unlikely to count for much. Not only is it a different format, but also victory will mean a lot more to India than England, who still have to rely on others for their slim to non-existent hopes of advancing.

Considering the relative importance of the result to each team, I am surprised bet365 cannot split the teams, making them both 5/6, a situation which makes India excellent value.

They may be missing messrs Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly, but in the likes of Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag they still have players capable of taking the game out of the opposition's hands.

Sehwag is the 3/1 favourite to be India's top runscorer and you get the feeling that a big innings is coming soon from the opener, who can be as destructive as anyone else in the competition at the top of the order. Robin Uthappa is next at 10/3, while Gautam Gambhir is 9/2 and Mahendra Dhoni 11/2.

As for England, Kevin Pietersen is again favourite at 3/1, though his team-mates will be hoping he avoids the kind of rush of blood he managed against New Zealand when he attempted a reverse sweep against Daniel Vettori only to be bowled.

Darren Maddy and Luke Wright - both of whom played pretty well against New Zealand - are next,. at 4/1 and 9/2 respectively, while Vikram Solanki is 5/1 and captain Paul Collingwood is an 11/2 shot.

Owais Shah, who actually looks in good nick, is 7/1, while Andrew Flintoff, who needs a good innings, is 10/1.

At these prices, I would have to say that backing India, at 5/6, is the way to go. The match means more to them because England are basically out, and once you feel that way, it's very hard to produce your best.