After the conclusion of their Test series, the next thing for New Zealand and Sri Lanka to embark on is an ODI series which gets underway on Thursday. We are just under six months away from the next World Cup so this should be an important series for both sides.
With that in mind I’m slightly surprised that the series is only three matches long but with it all done and dusted in the space of five days we can rattle through it and not have money tied up for long which sounds like a good idea.
Schedule
1st ODI – Jan 3 at Mount Maunganui
2nd ODI – Jan 5 at Mount Maunganui
3rd ODI – Jan 7 at Nelson
New Zealand
Although they are improving fast in the Test format of the game, historically this has been their strongest suit. They were one match away from being crowned world champions in the last World Cup and they will be out to go one better than that when they head to England for the next competition later in the year.
This will be their first outing in the 50 over sphere since they were in the UAE towards the back end of 2018, a series they drew 1-1 but were a manageable run chase away from winning before the rain fell. In their own conditions and against a weak outfit, the Kiwis will be looking at these three matches to build confidence for both the India series to come and the World Cup to follow.
Sri Lanka
To be fair to Sri Lanka they were much more competitive in the recent Test series than many would have expected them to be and now their challenge now is to ensure they take that competitiveness and turn it into victories in a format which will suit them much more, as they begin to build up for a World Cup challenge later in the year.
This will be the first time we see Sri Lanka since they were comprehensively beaten by England towards the end of 2018 and they were beaten more comfortably than the scoreline suggested by South Africa prior to that as well. Once again in alien conditions they will be up against it but their limited overs capabilities are well known, if a little dated by now.
Head to Head
There have been 15 previous series between these two nations with New Zealand coming out on top in eight of them and Sri Lanka prevailing on three occasions with four of them having been drawn. Seven of those New Zealand series wins have been at home with two draws and just a solitary Sri Lanka series win which came back in 2001.
New Zealand have won 23 of the 38 ODIs that these two have played in bilateral series at home grounds of the Kiwis. Sri Lanka have 12 wins themselves and three of them have resulted in a no result or a tie so history is very much against the tourists here.
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Betting
I expect this series to be dominated by New Zealand but with weather and things possibly coming into play I don’t really want to play the correct score market so I’ll just take one over the course of the series, which comes from the top New Zealand series batsman offering, where I think the captain Kane Williamson is the man to be on.
Williamson is a class act and we saw some of his better form in the Test series. You have to be a good player of spin when you play a Sri Lankan one day side and he very much is that. You wouldn’t expect anyone lower than maybe Taylor at four to get enough time in the middle over these three matches and Taylor might need a massive knock. Williamson should get enough time and can get stuck in at a decent enough price for a man of his credentials.
Tips
Back K.Williamson Top New Zealand Series Batsman for a 2/10 stake at 3.75 with Betfred
Back him here:
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