The T20 series between India and Sri Lanka has reached a deciding match which will be played out in Rajkot on Saturday and while these matches have been the pre-cursor to the ODIs which follow, both teams will want to win this game.
We are just under two years out from the next T20 World Cup so there isn’t really any significant meaning to this game other than to lay a marker down for the ODIs which will matter in what is a 50 over World Cup year.
India
Although this is a much changed India side which has taken to the field for this series, they looked like they had things in control after winning the opening match. You would have to say they weren’t overly convincing in that opener and nearly threw it away but they got the job done, only to be well beaten in the second game in Pune on Thursday so now they have to respond to that loss and come out fighting to win the series.
India won’t need to work out what needs to improve. That much is obvious. Their bowlers nearly let the opening game slip and they were in no control at all of the second one so even though it is a unit missing a number of starters, there is so much more to come from them and they might need to it as well because this is a much changed batting unit India are adopting as well and there is no guarantee they will hit the big scores we usually associate with them.
Sri Lanka
Even though it is a changed India side which Sri Lanka are taking on this series, Sri Lanka are always considered the underdogs when they head to India but they could easily have won the series. They fell a shot short of getting over the line from nowhere in the opening game and then dominated the second one. They too nearly threw their win away with the ball but managed to fall over the line in Pune to secure a deciding match here.
That was a decent effort from Sri Lanka because they are missing their best seamer in Dushmantha Chameera but the bowlers they have got with them are doing a decent job. The lower order have scored well in the series too and the top order came to the party in the second game of the series so Sri Lanka will be feeling good about where they are at heading into this decider. A win here will certainly put them in a good place heading into the ODIs.
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Team News
India coach Rahul Dravid has suggested that his side would go in with an unchanged team unless there were any fresh injuries. None of those have been reported so we can expect to see the same XI from the home side.
There is no need for Sri Lanka to make changes to a winning side but there is the suggestion that Sadeera Samarawickrama could come in for the out of form Bhanuka Rajapaksa. He hasn’t really done it at international level but had a good Sri Lanka Premier League. It would be a big call though.
Betting
This deciding match will take place in Rajkot and it would be foolish to expect anything but a high scoring game on a pitch which is often likened to a road. We’ve just seen these two sides run up the scores in Pune and there is nothing to suggest that now they are fully into their work that they won’t continue to pepper the flags even allowing for the batters that India are missing. Such is their depth these days it doesn’t really matter who they select.
We have just seen 46 boundaries in Pune in a match where five of the India top six didn’t make more than a dozen so there is much more to come from their batting unit which can only assist the chance of boundaries here. The last T20 international played here in Rajkot we saw 35 boundaries even though South Africa only scored 87 in a dismal batting effort. That highlights the likelihood of boundaries here and with both teams scoring runs throughout the series I like the over in boundaries here.
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