England vs Sri Lanka

England secured the ODI series with a match to spare with another emphatic win at The Oval on Wednesday night and they head to Cardiff for the final match looking for a 3-0 whitewash which will boost their ranking and for a side that have repeatedly stated their aim is to become the best they can in this format it is unlikely they will take their feet off the gas now.

Sri Lanka have had a difficult tour so far but they only have two matches left of it beginning with this game and then a T20 match on Tuesday. They have a good tradition in this format of the game so they will want to take something from the series even if it is only a dead rubber.

England

So far England have chased in all four matches and while they made a pigs ear of things first time around only to use their batting depth to the full to escape with a tie in the other two run chases they have been fantastic, winning with plenty of balls to spare with their openers in excellent form in both wins.

Although the openers have contributed to both wins it has been England’s bowlers who have impressed the most in the series so far especially Liam Plunkett who is the leading wicket taker in the series. Another decent bowling performance here can set up another win.

Sri Lanka

Throughout the series Sri Lanka have struggled to finish their innings off and set totals that their bowlers can defend so it will have been a real kick in the teeth in the last game when they finally put up what looked like a match winning total only for it to never look like being enough when they were in the field.

Sri Lanka have battled injuries and fatigue not to mention the weather rarely being to their liking on this tour and you get the feeling this is a group of players who want the plane home to get back to warmer and sunnier climes in Sri Lanka. They won’t want to end their tour without a win though.

Team News

England are expected to be unchanged unless the short boundaries put them off playing two spinners in which case Chris Jordan may well come back in for Moeen Ali. Alex Hales did have a back issue in the previous match but there have been no reports that he’ll have to miss out here.

Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews was quite forceful in saying that changes will need to be made in his interview after the previous game. He didn’t state who would come in but Niroshan Dickwella could come into the side for someone.

Swalec Stadium

There have been 17 ODIs on this ground in all with 13 of them completed. England have won four of out the five they have played here with results while Sri Lanka played here twice in the Champions Trophy in 2013 and lost on both occasions.

Only three times in the past has the first innings yielded more than 300 and it was India who did it on each occasion so this might not be the high scoring game we’d like to finish the series with. That said the Royal London One Day Cup totals on the ground this season have been quite high. The short boundaries straight down the ground are particularly big.

Betting

I’m not one for betting on dead rubbers it has to be said so I’m going to go into this match quite slowly and not get too involved. There is ample amounts of cricket coming up over the next three months and we don’t need to go steaming into risky bets at prices we don’t like here.

There is one bet I like though which is England’s 10 over total where over 51.5 is even money. That looks a fairly low line to me. In the two matches England have won they have made first 10 over totals of 61 and 57 and on a ground with these dimensions I expect them to score quickly again.

It is hard to defend this ground in the powerplays with only two out and the square boundaries so big so you often find teams getting off the fast starts here. England’s openers are in sensational nick and this Sri Lanka bowling attack looks demoralised. Even if the openers don’t deliver the middle order get on with it so I’m expecting England to get to 52 and beyond before the first powerplay is done.

Tips

WON – Back England 1^st 10 overs – Over 51.5 runs for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Coral

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