London, Aug. 20 : Bookies are expecting up to 10 million pounds to be bet on the fifth Ashes Test, the most gambled on a match in the history of cricket.

With the series level going into the final five days at The Oval from today, Ladbrokes claims interest in its betting markets is at an all-time high.

Despite a poor showing at Headingley, most of the money is going on 7/2 outsiders England and their returning talisman Andrew Flintoff.

Flintoff - competing in his final Test - is 3/1 to be top England wicket taker, 10/1 to be their top batsman and 8/1 favourite to be man of the match.

According to The Times, he is 12/1 to take five wickets in either innings, 2/1 to hit a fifty and 10/1 to hit a hundred.

And the betting firm is even offering 100/1 that he is knighted in the New Year''s Honours List.

Ladbrokes spokesman Robin Hutchison said: "This time England have to win if they are to snatch back the urn and we are laying bundles of them up and down the country.

"If England win and Flintoff is man of the match we''ll melt all our betting pens and carve a huge statue in fond remembrance of the man who burnt the bookies," he added.

Australia are 6/4 to make it two victories in a row and retain the Ashes, with the draw priced at 6/4.

Skybet. com confirms the Test is the biggest betting occasion in cricket.

"Demand is almost an exact correlation to the publicity surrounding the match and this has been big," Dale Tempest told Sky News Online.

The one distraction ahead of the match has been a potential match-fixing plot, though the International Cricket Council insist there is no evidence of wrongdoing. (ANI)