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In your Sports Xtra email today:

• Cash-in on Barcelona at 11/2...
  
• Don't miss out on the most profitable period of the season...
  
• A great value bet on the cricket...

Football and cricket are top of our agenda today - Mr X has got two
great bets for you, plus news of how you can cash-in on the most
profitable period of the season. Over to the X-man for this week's
free advice...

It's not looking good for England...

"Maybe the 'downer' of not becoming millionaires overnight in the
recent Stanford 20/20 match has proven too much for England's
cricketers - because they've made the worst possible start to their
series of one-day internationals against India.

In the first game the Indians slogged their way to 387 runs in
their 50 allocated overs - England's reply was to be all out in the
37th over for 229.

Then in the second game on Monday, India knocked in 292 runs in
their 50, while England's response was to be all out in the 47th
for 238.

I've heard plenty of criticism of England's batsmen in these two
losses - but what about the bowlers?

If a side can knock in 387 runs against you in 50 overs, surely
that's the fault of your bowling line-up?

Anyway, the bookies smell blood - a 7-0 Indian whitewash has been
slashed to 6/1 and the Indians are now 1/16 to win the one-day
series.

That's an un-backable price for you and me, but there is a bet on
India's pumped up cricketers that we certainly can steam into -
more about that in a moment.

Follow the leader...

Looking through some of the stats I keep for 'The Sports
Statistician' (our monthly football winner finder) I've come across
a couple of corkers...

Chelsea have won 7 consecutive Premier League 'away' games so far
this season - that's ten and a half hours of football - and have
only been behind on the scoreboard for 3 of those 630 total minutes
(Man City led them for 180 seconds on September 13th).

At the other end of the scale...

Stoke have clocked up ten and a half hours of 'away' football in
the Premier League too - and have never been in the lead for one
single minute of that time.

Cash-in on brilliant Barcelona...

"Talking about the beautiful game... it doesn't get much more
beautiful than the game Barcelona are playing just now.

We've already backed Barca to win Spain's La Liga (we backed them
at 13/8 in the July 23rd Sports Xtra, and their current price is
now just 8/11). Now it's time for us to get our Champions League
betting boots on.

Football's most glamour-laden tournament is about to reach the
critical knockout stage - and I want us to grab a peach of a price
for Barcelona before their odds start to tumble.

Barcelona are producing the most phenomenal stats (and score-lines)
in La Liga this year.

Just check this out...

Barcelona's last four La Liga Results:

Huelva 0 Barcelona 2
Barcelona 6 Valladolid 0
Malaga 1 Barcelona 4
Barcelona 5 Almera 0

Now a handful of vital stats from 'The Sports Statistician':

• At home I have Barcelona rated to fire around 17 shots per
  match - while allowing their visitors just 5 shots at their own
  net.

• They have a 'home' goals rating 'for' of almost 4 goals per
  match (!) while allowing opponents just 1 successful strike per
  match.

• Away from home Barcelona are scoring around 3 goals per match
  - while allowing the opposition to score less than 1 goal per
  match.

• Away from home Barca are producing incredible ball possession
  figures. They have the ball for around 65 percent per game - that's
  far more than most teams ever achieve, even at home.

There isn't another team in Europe that can match those figures.

Of course, Barcelona has always been a strong team. But their
present stellar form dates from the appointment of Pep Guardiola as
manager in place of Frank Rijkaard at the beginning of this season
- and the vanquishing of the unsettled Ronaldhino to AC Milan.

Since then Barca have looked a much happier outfit - more
confident, more together and much more dangerous.

Guardiola's turned it all around with a commitment to Barcelona's
ball-playing style, and an intense attention to detail - and his
side have a chance second to none of lifting the Champions League
trophy this year.

The bookies will give us 11/2 about a Barcelona Champions League
victory - and now is the time to back them.

You can find the best odds on Barcelona here:

http://odds.sportsxtra.co.uk/football/champions-league/winner

"John Sergeant - against all the odds - and in defiance of all
that's cherished in the world of ballroom dancing, is still in
there!

The man whose dancing style has more in common with Winnie-The-Pooh
than Fred Astaire has become so beloved of the voting public that
he is still in contention on Strictly Come Dancing - and his price
was cut last week to 16/1 from 66/1 (!) to win the show outright.

Okay, he can't dance - but I guess that you and I could both name a
few zillionaire singers that can't sing.

Without a doubt Sergeant is the most popular contestant in
'Strictly's' history and there will be blood on the carpet and
demands for a recount when (or, if) he eventually goes.

The latest John Sergeant odds:

10/1 to receive a zero score from one of the judges
6/1 to receive the lowest score in the competition's history
5/2 to make it to the final night of 'Strictly'
5/6 to be evicted this week
8/11 to be in the bottom two this week
5/6 to score 20 points or less this week.

One for the future...

"The 2008 tennis season is now officially laid to rest - but I've
got an early (very early) warning of a boy who could be the next
Nadal, Federer or Murray.

Spencer Papa from Edmond, Oklahoma is just 12 years old but he's a
player of extraordinary promise. This year he became the first
youngster ever to win both of America's coveted 'Golden Tennis
Ball' awards (for young players aged 12 and under), landing the
prizes in both the singles and doubles categories.

Spencer's dad seems to have the right idea. Instead of packing his
son off to one of the high-powered US tennis academies, he's
allowing Spencer to take the game at his own pace, "The most
important thing is that he continues to love playing tennis'' says
dad, who doesn't object to Spencer spending the occasional night
playing on his X Box.

Amen to that. We've seen some very talented youngsters totally
ruined by being forced through the academy system in recent years -
and ending up burnt out and finished at just 17 or 18.

I'll let you know how Spencer gets on next year.

India are great value to win the Series

"Back to the cricket between India and England - and our bet...

When the current one-day matches are finished India and England
will play two Test matches, and I'm very surprised that we can
still get nearly Even money for India to win that Test series.

This Indian side is playing great stuff at the moment, they've got
fantastic talent all the way down the card, and it was only a
couple of weeks ago that they defeated the world number-one
Australia 2-0 in a Test series.

So how do the bookmakers chalk up 10/11 India to beat this
struggling England side?

On the dust bowls of India? There's only one team to back and
that's the home side...

When India beat Australia we saw excellent ball performances by
spinners Amit Mishra and Virender Sehwag (in place of the injured
stars Kumble and Singh) together with the impressive pace package
of Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma, which illustrates the depth India
have right now with ball in hand.

And they're just as classy with the bat...

Gautam Gambhir is in the form of his life right now - and the same
goes for the wristy VVS Laxman, who knocked in a superb double
century in Delhi. Laxman is a gift from the cricketing gods when
he's in form and he and Gambhir are just two of half a dozen Indian
batsmen who can do England serious damage.

To be frank, I haven't seen an Indian team this good for quite a
long time - not with bat and ball. It's hard to justify the odds
chalked up about the home side winning the series - I rate them as
strong 4/6 chances.

At just a smidgeon short of Even money to win the Test series
against England, the Indians are well worth a bet."

Check here for the best odds on India beating England in the Test
Series:

http://odds.sportsxtra.co.uk/cricket/test-series/matches/

That's all for today. Good luck with your bets on Barcelona and
India - I'll write to you again next week with more free advice
from Mr X.

To catch up on all our previous Sports Xtra emails, and search
through ALL the articles Mr X has written - head to our website...

www.sportsxtra.co.uk

Best wishes,

Matt Nesbitt

Sports Xtra