The ICC Cricket World Cup hopes of both England and Sri Lanka are hanging by a thread and that thread will disappear for one of the two on Thursday when they meet at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.
Both these teams have played four matches in the tournament and lost three of them and they will both be fully aware that their next defeat will be their last as a competitive entity in this event. Everything is on the line in this one.
England
England arrived at the tournament as the defending champions and while they cut a confident figure, deep down in the outside world there were plenty of fears over this bunch which sadly for their followers have come to the fore. Poor preparation and a squad which was way beyond their best never looked like a successful combination and it certainly hasn’t been so far. England have taken two huge defeats in their three matches so just five wins from their remaining five games may not be enough if they don’t massage their net run rate.
The position they have got themselves into is bad enough for England but what makes it worse is they are struggling with both the bat and the ball and the injuries, which always looked like they would come from the minute they announced their squad for this tournament, are beginning to hit as well. When you add all of that to some questionable decisions before and during matches, the picture is a pretty bleak one for the defending champions.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka started this tournament with three straight defeats, the first two of them being pretty heavy. That was a surprise when matched up with their ODI record of recent times but they have to be cut some slack because their bowling attack was decimated before the tournament started and they have suffered another major loss to the attack while the competition has been on. With that in mind, they deserve credit for keeping their campaign alive in their latest match.
Critics will argue it was only the Netherlands that they beat but at the halfway mark of that match the Dutch looked to have a more than competitive score on the board, however Sri Lanka made it look insignificant so regardless of which it was that they beat, the Asia Cup finalists will take some confidence from that match into this one with them. They have won a match under pressure and now take on an opponent who must be full of self-doubt.
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Team News
England are forced into one change for this match with Reece Topley out for the remainder of the tournament but it looks like they will be making a few changes. Brydon Carse was called up as a replacement for Topley but won’t have arrived in time to be ready for this one so Chris Woakes is expected to come in. Moeen Ali is likely to replace one of Gus Atkinson or Mark Wood.
Sri Lanka have called up Angelo Mathews as the replacement for Matheesha Pathirana but it is unclear how ready he is to compete. Dunith Wellalage could come back into the side after missing the win over the Dutch.
Betting
With this match being in Bangalore the obvious starting point is the sixes but when you throw these two teams into the mix it becomes even more appealing because wins are not enough for these two from here on in. They need to win matches by acceptable margins so there can be no limping to a target or just getting over the line. When a target is in sight the accelerator has to be pushed to the floor and this venue offers up the ideal chance for that to happen.
The sixes line is 15.5 for this match which is on the low side anyway. We have only had one match on this ground this tournament which was a high scoring encounter between Australia and Pakistan which had 25 sixes even though Australia had barely scored a run in the tournament to that point. We know that England have some savage hitters of a cricket ball in their ranks but Sri Lanka have belted 30 sixes in four matches in the tournament even though two of their games have been on the sluggish pitches in Lucknow. After the shambles of the last game England may be forced to bat first regardless of the toss outcome and so I like the sixes to flow in this one.
Tips
Back Over 15.5 sixes for a 4/10 stake at 1.95 with BetVictor
