The fear when the format for the Cricket World Cup was announced was that there would be a host of dead rubbers towards the end of the group stage. To be fair there are unlikely to be too many but when Sri Lanka take on West Indies in Durham on Monday we have one.
Both these sides have failed to hit the heights they would have expected when the tournament began and as such they have no chance of qualifying and are just playing out time in the competition now.
AllSportsBetting Podcast
Kev and Steve are back once again to look forward to another match in this fascinating tournament. We have our first dead rubber of the tournament here but the lads have still got three bets for the match. Click play on the video below to hear what they are and why you should back them.
Sri Lanka
Having done so well to keep themselves in the tournament for as long as they did, Sri Lanka have to be disappointed with their effort against South Africa last time out. They seemed to go into the match without a game plan and just got stuck with the bat and while they plugged away with the ball they were never defending enough runs and were shown up to be the poor side we all expected them to be prior to the tournament beginning.
If ever they do find form with the bat and put in the sort of effort that takes them beyond 250, a score they haven’t reached at any stage in the event to date, then you would fancy them to have a chance of winning because they have already defended a couple of scores lower than that. We haven’t seen them chasing too often in this tournament so it will be interesting to see how they fare if batting second here.
West Indies
This was a tournament that started so well for West Indies but it has turned sour pretty quickly. They looked like they were going to launch a real tilt at the title when they demolished Pakistan in their first game but the only point they have picked up from six outings since then was a rained off match against South Africa midway through the tournament, a clash which they could probably have done with playing in hindsight given how poor South Africa have been.
West Indies batting just hasn’t hit the heights expected of them in this tournament. The one time they went really well with the bat was against New Zealand and a magical innings papered over the cracks in that one. They did score 300 against Bangladesh but that was chased down with eight overs to spare to put that into context.
Team News
Sri Lanka have had seamer Nuwan Pradeep ruled out of the tournament now with chicken pox. Kasun Rajitha has replaced him in the squad and could come into the starting XI in place of Suranga Lakmal.
West Indies are hoping that Evin Lewis will be fit to take his place in the side after missing the loss to India. He will come in for Sunil Ambris if he is fit in what is expected to be the only change but you can never truly know with this lot.
Special Offer
Bet on the team top batsman market at Boylesports; get money back as a free bet up to £20 if your player scores 50+ but doesn’t top score! ALL CUSTOMERS! Click the image above to bet. 18+ T&Cs apply
Betting
I’m not one for going too deep on dead rubbers but there are a couple of bets that have caught my eye here. The first is on Avishka Fernando to score more than 24.5 runs. He has bagged 49 against England and 30 against South Africa which was right here on this very ground and he looked good in both innings. Prior to that he smacked 74 against Scotland in an ODI so his form is clearly very good and the big question would seem to be why he wasn’t playing in this team earlier. He’s in now though and he can continue to take advantage with a score of 25 or more here.
Shimron Hetmyer probably should have top scored against India last time out but couldn’t beat a fielder in the circle with a shot but I’ll play him again at 6/1 in the hope that he does deliver the goods here. He is a big hitter who is a class act at the same time and has a fine record in his early ODI career. He has made a couple of 50s in this tournament but he hasn’t really launched himself into the big time in it just yet. A decent knock here can do that and he’s value to top score with it should it come along.
Tips
WON – Back A.Fernando – Over 24.5 runs for a 4/10 stake at 1.85 with BetVictor
Back him here:
Back S.Hetmyer Top West Indies Batsman for a 1/10 stake at 7.00 with Betfair
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2019
