India odds on to beat England in Champions Trophy final

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Birmingham: India start favourites against hosts England in the ICC Champions Trophy final on Sunday, according to UK's top online betting sites.While India are unbeaten in this tournament and are the current World Cup champions, England are bidding to win their first major ODI championship.Almost all online betting sites are tipping India to win the last edition of the tourney.But there is a weather warning: Don't bet till the toss because the forecast isn't great.According to betting-directory.com and Ladbrokes, India are 8/11 odds on to win this weekend's final.Alastair Cook's men, who beat South Africa in the semifinals, are at 11/10.By virtue of their unbeaten streak and the consistent performances from their batsmen, India seem to enjoying pole position in the batting stakes. The left-handed Shikhar Dhawan, who has struck back-to-back centuries and amassed 322 runs, is 5/2 to be his team's top batsman.With his top order doing the job in most games, Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni hasn't had much chance to shine.Someone with a ODI batting average of 51.67 and with skills to turn the complexion of a game single-handedly, Dhoni has a best price of 8/1 to be top batsman.On the bowling front, England's pacer James Anderson has the edge. Anderson has taken 10 wickets at 12.70 during the tournament so far and it is no surprise to see he is 9/4 to be top England bowler.All-rounder Tim Bresnan is at 7/2 though as he is expected to come back into the side at Edgbaston, where he took 2 for 45 and found some extravagant reverse swing against Australia earlier this summer.Most betting sites quote their odds purely on the basis of a player's performance.For example, Jonathan Trott, who has scored 209 runs at a strike-rate of 89.69, is 3/1 to be his team's top run-getter.Trott will be the best man to read the wicket because his County side Warwickshire are based at Edgbaston.