The opening match of the T20 World Cup 2022 sees the former champions Sri Lanka starting out on their latest title tilt when they go up against Namibia in the first half of a double header at Kardinia Park in Geelong on Sunday.
These two look to be the standout sides in Group A so it could very well be that the winner of this match will take a huge step towards winning the group and going through to the main stage. The loser won’t be out of the competition but they will be under pressure.
Sri Lanka
When we go back a year, Sri Lanka were in this position where they had to come through a first round group. On that occasion they blitzed through it and that will be their aim here. They come into this tournament as the Asia Cup champions which will be a perfect boost to their confidence and you could argue that with the battery of seamers they suddenly have at their disposal that they might even be better suited to conditions here.
We might see Sri Lanka build into the tournament because a couple of their key seamers are still working their way up to full fitness. I think Sri Lanka will want to put a bit of a marker down with the bat here. Their bowling is likely to improve as we go along but if their batters can show that they are ready and mean business, especially their top order ones, then it will go a long way to winning this match, this group and having them in good shape for what is to come.
Namibia
Namibia went into the T20 World Cup a year ago with not much expected of them but they put up such a good display in the UAE that they return to the competition here in Australia with a lot more expected of them, not least because they will be competing in conditions which are much more suited to the African ones which they would play in whenever they get to feature at home. The downside to going so well last year is that they didn’t have to qualify for this World Cup so they might be a little undercooked.
The feature of the Namibia side a year ago was their bowling attack. I think it is fair to say that there is an element of them being a new ball attack but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing in these conditions. It does mean that they need to take early wickets though else they might well get plundered with the new ball in hand. It will be interesting to see if there is a lot more in this Namibia side with the bat in conditions that will suit.
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Team News
Dushmantha Chameera and Lahiru Kumara have both been passed fit to feature in the competition. It remains to be seen whether they are selected in this match or whether they continue to build up their fitness.
Namibia are going to be very similar to the side which competed for them in this tournament a year to go. David Wiese will be their star act but look to Ruben Trumpelmann and Jan Frylinck to play a decent supporting role.
Betting
I’m going to work my way into this tournament and by that I mean I’ll go with a couple of bets which don’t involve the winner of this match. Part of that is because there is some rain around in Geelong and also because we don’t really know how the pitch is going to play. We do know that David Wiese will be deeply involved in the match though because he is a leading batter and one of the key bowlers for Namibia. He has a performance line of 30.5 and given that he’ll be contributing in all three disciplines I expect him to cover that. Wiese comes in here off the back of solid campaigns in The Hundred and in the CPL and in these conditions this line looks well in his radar.
I’ll also take a smaller punt on Bhunaka Rajapaksa to top score for Sri Lanka in this match. I’m going to work my way into the tournament as far as top bat bets are concerned but I think there is plenty of mileage on the Sri Lankan middle order player to top score. The strength of this Namibia side is very much with the new ball. We saw them go around the park a bit at the end of the innings last year and I can see similar happening here so the fact that Rajapaksa will be coming in for the second half of the innings should suit him nicely. He top scored when these two met in this tournament a year ago and he was their leading scorer at the Asia Cup.
Tips
Back D.Wiese’s Performance – Over 30.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back B.Rajapaksa Top Sri Lanka Batter for a 1/10 stake at 8.50 with Bet365
