England vs Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka end their tour of England on Tuesday night. They play out a sole T20 International at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton in what will be England’s first 20 over outing since they lost that dramatic T20 World Cup final back in April.

Sri Lanka go into this match still looking for their first win over England on this tour and having been beaten by England and effectively knocked out by them in the World T20 they might have a little bit of revenge in mind in this one.

England

You only have to look at the squad that England have named to see where this match lies on their list of priorities this month but they are going to give a debut to Liam Dawson on his home ground while Tymal Mills will surely debut too.

This match serves as a chance for England to put the misery of the World T20 behind them. Ben Stokes won’t be involved here so we will have to wait to see how he has dealt with the blow of that final over but all things being equal England will expect to finish the Sri Lanka leg of the summer with another emphatic win after three comfortable ODI wins in recent times.

Sri Lanka

I always think this is a difficult match for the tourists. A single T20 has no meaning to anything currently set up in the world game and when you’ve been in a country for two months and all it has done is rain the plane home looks a very enticing prospect right about now.

That said leaving England without a single win won’t do them any good whatsoever so hopefully from the point of view of seeing a match break out that inspires Sri Lanka to give their best performance. With the squad they brought over to England this was always going to be their best chance of winning a match.

Team News

England have given Alex Hales, Joe Root and Moeen Ali a rest for this match so Dawid Malan, James Vince and Liam Dawson look certain to come into the side. Tymal Mills is expected to start while Chris Jordan will join him in the death overs. You would think Adil Rashid and David Willey will make up the attack.

Sri Lanka could choose to make a few changes. They will definitely have to make one with Upul Tharanga not in the 20 over squad. He could be replaced by Dhananjaya de Silva while Suraj Randiv could well come into the side too.

Ageas Bowl

Historically this has probably been the best one day wicket in the country but the wickets there this season haven’t been quite as good with Nigel Gray leaving the scene as groundsman. That said there has been a 50 match there where both sides put up over 300 so it isn’t playing all bad. There has been plenty of rain in the area though so the groundsman will have had his work cut out to prepare the wicket he would like.

Matches played here in the past have been out and out run fests. Aaron Finch has scored 156 on this ground as both sides put up over 200 in the last T20 international here. Sri Lanka won the only meeting between these two by two runs back in 2006 while England destroyed Australia in the first ever T20 international here in 2005.

Betting

I don’t think this is a match to go massive on because England are resting players, Sri Lanka might have their eye on the plane home and the pitch might not be the normal sort of pitch here but I am confident about one bet and I’ll take a chance on another one.

The bet I’m confident about is England winning the match and winning it quite big. England’s three ODI wins were completely emphatic and I don’t see Sri Lanka having the batting depth to go with them here especially in these conditions which they haven’t got to grips with throughout their entire tour.

Even if they do have the batting to cope their bowling attack has suddenly started getting carted to all parts and I don’t see that changing here. England might be resting Hales and Root but Malan and Vince churn out runs for fun in this format at county level and most county attacks are better than Sri Lanka’s one.

England are just the better side with the bat and the ball and while anyone can produce a match winning performance in this format I expect most of the better performances to come from England players and as such I’ll take them to win quite well.

This also seems like a chance to take Seekkuge Prasanna to top score one last time. There is every chance he might go up the order here but if England are dominating we might not need him to move up too far. He certainly won’t bat lower than six with Tharanga out of the side and if Mills and Willey can rip a couple out at the start the leg spinner might not have much to beat.

At 16/1 I can’t resist a little nibble on Prasanna here as if anyone from Sri Lanka can clear these big boundaries you would think it is most likely to be him. That looks a big price in this line up.

Tips

WON – Back England (-5.5wickets/20.5runs) to beat Sri Lanka for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365

Back them here:

Back S.Prasanna Top Sri Lanka Batsman for a 1/10 stake at 17.00 with Paddy Power

Back him here: