WGM’s Best Weekend Bets: Fri 12 to Sun 14 June

We start the weekend’s betting action in London where hosts England face New Zealand in the second of their five match ODI cricket series. Having blasted their way to a record score of 408 and an emphatic win in the series opener, England’s limited overs side is suddenly the toast of the nation. How quickly they forget.

England have been nothing short of woeful in this form of the game for a long time now, losing eight of their past nine ODI series and being embarrassingly knocked out of the World Cup in the group stages earlier this year. By comparison, New Zealand are coming off a World Cup that saw them win all eight games on their way to the final, having enjoyed comfortable series wins over Sri Lanka and Pakistan in the lead-up.

In that sense, nothing has changed in our assessment of these two sides, but England’s big win earlier in the week has altered the odds in our favor. Kiwis to win.

Saturday sees us traverse the globe to New Zealand where the Warriors host the Sydney Roosters in Round 14 of the NRL. Both sides are missing players on State of Origin duty with the Roosters hardest hit – missing attacking weapons Mitchell Pearce and Michael Jennings among others. The fact the Warriors are yet to really hit top form is a concern, but they haven’t been terrible either and the news that Roosters enforcer Jared Waerea-Hargreaves is a late withdrawal through injury has swayed us in the home team’s favor.

The latest round of the MotoGP in Catalunya on Sunday promises to be a thriller with a fascinating battle going on at the top of the leaderboard between Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo. There is also the small matter of defending champion Marc Marquez who needs to start earning big points if he is to stay in contention. But it’s hard to go past Lorenzo, who has won the past three races this season and boasts a great record at this track with four wins in eight starts.