After a largely one sided Test series Sri Lanka will be delighted to be in coloured clothing rather than whites for the rest of their tour of England. Having just thrashed Ireland in two ODIs the 2011 World Cup finalists now embark on a five match series with England.
England are improved dramatically over the course of the last 12 months in white ball cricket and as they begin to step up their preparations for the Champions Trophy they host next year and the World Cup which they also host in 2019 all eyes will be on them to see if they have maintained that improvement.
Schedule
June 21 – 1st ODI Trent Bridge
June 24 – 2nd ODI Edgbaston
June 26 – 3rd ODI Bristol
June 29 – 4th ODI The Oval
July 2 – 5th ODI Cardiff
This series is included in the super series points table where two points are awarded to the winning side and a point each for a tie or no result. England lead the series 10-2 after the Test matches.
England
This will be the first time England have played one day cricket since that dramatic loss in the final of the World T20 back in April. Although this is a different version of the game they will be keen to banish those memories as quickly as possible.
England’s last 50 over action was in South Africa where England led 2-0 in the series but lost the last three matches to lose 3-2. Prior to that they had won a series in Pakistan but lost to Australia last summer again by a 3-2 scoreline. Winning series needs to become more of the norm if England are to remain among the elite in the ODI game.
Sri Lanka
Historically Sri Lanka are a good ODI side but they go into this series off the back of just two series wins in their last six and one of those was against Ireland over the weekend so that form is a little concerning it has to be said.
Clearly the good form they had in this format were down to their superstars of Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardena, Lasith Malinga and Tillakaratne Dilshan and none of those four are around at the minute. That has left a young side to go to battle but while they are young they still have individual 50 over skills. The key will be to implement them as a team.
Head to Head
Sri Lanka have won the last two bilateral series between these two sides. Both were in 2014. Sri Lanka won 3-2 in England and then 5-2 in Sri Lanka in the build-up for the 2015 World Cup. Prior to that England had won the previous two series so there isn’t a whole lot between these two in terms of series.
In ODIs overall Sri Lanka lead England 34-30 with perhaps the biggest win coming in the 2011 World Cup when Sri Lanka thrashed England by 10 wickets in the quarter final.
Betting
This isn’t the easiest series to bet on for a couple of reasons. As we saw with the Test series Sri Lanka might need some time to acclimatise to conditions and also the weather is awful at the minute so quite how many of the five matches will pass as full 50 over games when we look back on the series remains to be seen.
England are very short for the series but I think that is justified against a seriously young Sri Lanka side. I don’t necessarily think Sri Lanka will be blown away in each match but do they have the batting line up against England’s bowling to win three times in these conditions? I’m less convinced of that but handicaps and correct score bets are dodgy because of the weather.
In the end I’ve decided to go with the player markets although there is only one that interests me there ultimately. I was going to look at the Top England Bowler market where I wondered if there was any potential but I’m expecting England to rotate their attack through this series and we don’t actually know which seamers they will go in with. With the weather the way it is we don’t know how many spinners they’ll play either so I’ll leave that alone.
The market I’m interested in is the Top Sri Lanka Batsman market, probably the safest market to bet on in that they don’t have too many options to make changes through the series particularly in their top order.
I was looking at Angelo Mathews in this market. We only have to look back to the match between the two sides at the World T20 to see the dominance he can show against this England attack but the concern is that if the matches are shortened he might be batting too low. His form in the Tests wasn’t fantastic either.
Dinesh Chandimal is always capable of big things but where he is going to bat isn’t clear at the current time while down the order there are a couple of hitters but will they get the time in the middle over five matches? I’m not sure.
In the end I’m taking Kusal Perera, a man I often side with in this format but I’m even happier to do so here having seen his form over the last week or so. That all started with a really attacking and aggressive innings against some top class bowling from England in the Test at Lord’s and continued against an admittedly much inferior Irish attack over the weekend where he battered a century in the 2nd ODI.
If there is a weakness in this English side it is the amount of runs they leak at the beginning of the innings and Perera is just the man to jump all over that. By opening the batting we know he’ll get the crease time in every game Sri Lanka bat in and that could be the difference along with his super form. Perera may well have a point to prove after his drugs issue and he can prove that in style in this series.
Tips
Back K.Perera Top Sri Lanka Series Batsman for a 2/10 stake at 5.00 with Ladbrokes
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