A few weeks after playing Test cricket in England, Sri Lanka return home for another series against New Zealand. This is a two-match offering with the first of them taking place in Galle beginning on Wednesday.
New Zealand saw their warm up match for this series completely washed out against Afghanistan but will still be expected to put up a decent challenge with their recent record in this format a lot stronger than that of their hosts.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka will probably be a little disappointed with how their tour of England went overall but they will be pleased with how they ended it. They won the final Test match and although the narrative around it was that England threw the game away, Sri Lanka didn’t get nearly enough credit for that win and when you consider that they had a chance to win the first match of the series from a tough position, it could have been very different for them.
Sri Lanka persevered with the ball the longer the series went on in England. They weren’t particularly good in the opening two Tests with the ball in hand but they made up for that when it mattered. The big issue that Sri Lanka had in England was that their top order just couldn’t negate the new ball. The players down the order kept them relatively competitive but in this series they will be looking for a lot more from their top order. If they get that their spinners should be more in the game here and they could be hard to stop.
New Zealand
You would imagine that New Zealand might need this first match to be able to perform at their best. It is clear that they are taking this series seriously because they wouldn’t have arranged a match with Afghanistan in the lead up to it if they wasn’t but unfortunately for them the rain scuppered those plans so they are obviously going to have plenty of natural improvement in them after this match. The question is how competitive can they be without having had that warm up.
This will be the first Test cricket that New Zealand have played since March so that is another reason why you would imagine they will warm into their work in this series. You would think that their batting is good enough to put runs on the board, although they will need to adjust to the conditions, the big thing will be whether they have enough in their spin department to get the job done here. If they do then they could make a decent game of it.
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Team News
Sri Lanka have made two changes to their side for this match from the one which won at The Oval. There are recalls for Ramesh Mendis and Prabath Jayasuriya while it looks as though Kamindu Mendis will move up to five after impressing in England.
New Zealand will be without Trent Boult for this series as he is picking and choosing the matches he plays in but Tim Southee is in the squad and the only other selection issue is who will take the new ball with him. Matt henry, Ben Sears and Will O’Rourke are the candidates.
Betting
Kamindu Mendis is making such a good start to his Test career that it is hard to not back him in some fashion in this match and I think his performance line is the way to get involved. It is only 72.5 and when you consider that his Test batting average is now 77.22 he only needs an average innings to cover this with a fair bit in hand. I would be surprised if Sri Lanka don’t bat twice and with Mendis now going up the order he is more likely to be at the crease on two different occasions.
The bodes well for him covering this performance total but you would have to imagine that back in Sri Lanka where the wicket is going to turn at some point, if not right from the beginning, that he is going to get a few overs with the ball as well so there is every chance that he might take a chunk of this total out while at the bowling crease as well. Throw in the potential for the catches and I think there is enough reason to think that this line can be covered.
Tips
Back Kamindu Mendis’ Performance – Over 72.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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