India and Sri Lanka will play a deciding ODI in their series on Sunday when the two sides do battle for the third time in Visakhapatnam. With three T20s to follow this match both teams will be looking to make a statement by winning the 50 over series heading into them.
The decider has come about courtesy of a special innings from Rohit Sharma which saw India to level the series after Sri Lanka had completely blown the hosts away in the opening game.
India
We have seen Rohit Sharma play those special innings in the past and there is no doubt he will have them in him again. India could do with another one from their stand-in skipper here if they are going to go on and win the series. They keep on maintaining that they are more focused on the upcoming South Africa tour but they’ve lost no edge on the field.
The beauty of this Indian side is that they have the players to compete in all conditions and they might need that here. Having played on a juicy seamers wicket and a good batting deck it appears they will need their spinners to come to the party in this match. They have plenty of quality in that department though.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka are in the middle of a wretched run in the 50 over format despite their opening match win in this series but if they can triumph in this game then much of that poor trot will have been forgotten. We saw in the Champions Trophy that they can beat India in a one-off match and that is the belief they will need to draw on.
To be fair to Sri Lanka given that they were never going to chase down India’s total in the second match on Wednesday they put up a fair batting effort, the sort that suggested if they can get stuck into the Indian top order with the ball in their hand they might just be able to pull this series win off. They should take plenty of encouragement from that.
Team News
With this wicket expected to take a lot more spin than the first two in the series Kuldeep Yadav could make a return to the side. Dinesh Karthik and Manish Pandey could do with scores moving forward.
Angelo Mathews has been passed fit to play for Sri Lanka having previously been a doubt in the lead up to the match. That means the tourists could be unchanged for the contest.
Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium
There have been six previous ODIs on this ground in Visak. India have won five and lost just one of those matches while Sri Lanka lost their only outing here which was back in 2007. The side who have won the toss has won all six matches.
Generally scores have had a normal look to them here with 280 generally a decent total. With the dryness in the wicket it could be another tough day for the batsmen.
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Betting
The previous match in Mohali was a high scoring game but I’m not convinced this one will follow suit. Even though the last game was full of runs you got the feeling had Rohit Sharma gone relatively early there would have been nowhere near the number that there were.
Although he has done it three times now Sharma isn’t always going to fill his boots like that and if this wicket is dry and slightly two paced then scoring won’t come naturally to either side so with that in mind the bet I like here is under 538.5 runs.
Tips
WON – Back Under 538.5 runs for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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