The third match of the 2017 Champions Trophy sees the start of Group B where South Africa take on Sri Lanka at The Oval. With India and Pakistan to come both sides will be eager to get off to a winning start in this brutal format.
This match sees the highest ranked side in the competition taking on one of the lowest but in this tournament nobody is safe. South Africa go in as heavy favourites though.
Sri Lanka
Given that this is a young Sri Lanka side with the exception of two of three players you could argue they have little to lose both in this match and in this tournament but professional sportsmen representing their country shouldn’t be thinking like that. We can though. They do have nothing to lose.
One positive to having a young side is that they will be fearless and in tune with the modern game and I think that is important in these conditions. They will need to be smart too especially with the bat but if they can make their way to a total and get early wickets you just never know. They have to be at their best with the ball though.
South Africa
You would expect South Africa to be the favourites both in this match and especially in these conditions but having lost a recent series 2-1 to England confidence might not be as high as the Proteas would like and you just know somewhere at the back of their minds will be the thoughts of choking.
In terms of personnel South Africa have a near perfect side. They have a brilliant top four and two hitters after them to pile on the runs and they have a bowling attack which offers plenty of variety. Going forward their fifth bowler could be a concern but they wouldn’t expect that to be the case here.
Team News
I was surprised in the lead up to this match when AB de Villiers said that his side would try and get Morne Morkel in the team. I thought he would be an automatic pick but clearly not. David Miller is fit to play.
Sri Lanka have a doubt over their captain Angelo Mathews. I suspect he’ll play as a batsman only but that isn’t set in stone. Lasith Malinga will definitely play with Nuwan Kulasekara likely to be his new ball partner.
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Betting
I think Sri Lanka will be more competitive than the odds suggest in this match but not to the extent that I want to back them or anything but having had the luxury of seeing a game on this ground I have got a few bets.
I’m expecting boundaries here. I’m pretty sure they will use a fresh wicket. There were two mats down on other decks during the first match of the tournament here so that would make sense although if they use Thursday’s wicket we know there is a very short side. In the last two ODIs these two played in the series in South Africa earlier in the year there were more than 80 boundaries each time and there was 71 here in the opening match of the tournament. Both sides bat deep so I fancy over 58.5 boundaries in this one.
On that note I’m surprised at the price of one of the Sky Bet request a bet offers. They go 6/4 both sides score more than 274.5 runs which is just a daft price. We’ve only had three innings in this tournament and 300 would have been scored in each one but for rain. Even the warm up matches were full of runs and I expect plenty more here. Sri Lanka made 327 and 296/8 in those last two ODIs in South Africa and lost both times. I expect similar here.
In the final match of that series Asela Gunaratne made 114* and already on this ground on this tour he has nailed 70 not out against Australia in a warm up match. With Angelo Mathews’ participation and impact in doubt I fancy the classy Sri Lankan will get a role higher up the order. I’m a big fan of his as he can play the nudge and nurdle innings and he can give it some good old Reggie Biffington. He’s overpriced at 11/1 to top score for Sri Lanka here.
Tips
Back Over 58.5 boundaries for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with William Hill
Back it here:
Back Request A Bet – Both sides to score over 274.5 runs for a 4/10 stake at 2.50 with Skybet
Back it here:
Back A.Gunaratne Top Sri Lanka Batsman for a 1/10 stake at 12.00 with NetBet
Back him here:
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