The first of five ODIs between New Zealand and Sri Lanka takes place on Boxing Day, or Christmas night in the UK with both sides looking to kick off the series with a win.
Matches come thick and fast in this series so early momentum could be crucial which should in theory add to the competitiveness of this match and the next two to follow.
New Zealand were World Cup finalists in this format of the game back in March but since then their fortunes have been mixed at best. They have lost series to England and South Africa and edged past Zimbabwe.
The Kiwis have decided to give Tim Southee and Trent Boult a rest for the early part of this series so the hosts could well be slightly understrength with the ball while they are missing key men in that World Cup run in the form of Grant Elliott and Corey Anderson. Mitchell Santner went well in England and continues his quest for a permanent spot in the side.
Sri Lanka lost in the quarter final of the World Cup but are always a dangerous side in this format of the game and having given New Zealand plenty of problems in the Tests they will be confident going into these 50 over matches.
Lasith Malinga is a doubt for this opening match so Thisara Perera is on standby. He will boost their batting which could do with a boost with Kusal Perera ruled out with his failed drugs test. Kumar Sangakkara is a thing of the past in the international game so Angelo Mathews and Tillakaratne Dilshan will have key roles to play.
Hagley Oval in Christchurch is the venue for the opening two matches in the series. There have been six previous matches on this ground including three in that World Cup earlier in the year. New Zealand have played in two of the matches here and have won them both. One of them was against Sri Lanka back in January.
The first innings score in the last three matches on this ground have all been over 300 but although the scores are high the boundaries are pretty big here so we don’t see the number of boundaries we do in some of the New Zealand grounds.
New Zealand are favourites to win this opening match and given the respective results in that World Cup I guess that is understandable but as I mentioned in the series preview I’m not sure their focus is as big on this series so I’d rather see their intensity before I take them especially at a short price.
The sixes line for this match is at 8.5 and in the six previous games here the only time that line was covered was when Andre Russell went mental late on in a West Indies innings against Pakistan. The boundaries here are big so that line does look high.
New Zealand don’t have the batting quality or depth they had earlier in the year and Sri Lanka’s attack with the willow is severely depleted too. They’re not the biggest hitting side going around anyway so all things being equal I expect this match to have fewer than 8.5 sixes.
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