Sri Lanka conclude their tour of New Zealand on Saturday when the two sides head to Queenstown for the third and final T20 which will actually be the deciding game of what has been an entertaining series.
Sri Lanka won the opening game in a super over but they were taken to the cleaners in the second one and now everything is on the line in terms of the series here. Sri Lanka have been competitive at times on this tour and will feel they deserve to leave with a series win.
New Zealand
Considering that the majority of the New Zealand stars are away playing in the Indian Premier League, the home side deserve a lot of credit for finding a way back into this series. They lost the first game in fairly agonising fashion too so to bounce back with such a dominant display in the second game was very much kudos to them. They will hope there is a bit more improvement in them for a third time here and if there is they are going to be very tough to beat.
The good thing for New Zealand in that second game was their bowling was able to get control of the innings and never relinquish it. We thought they would do on a slightly bigger ground but they still had to go and do it. Sometimes small run chases can turn into a bit of an issue but they set out with the intention of dominating the chase and were successful in doing so. A repeat of that performance gives them every chance so any improvement makes them so hard to beat.
Sri Lanka
You just feel this is a big match for Sri Lanka. In the Test series they were very competitive in the opening match but lost it on the last ball and then in this T20 series they have won the first game but not really shown up in the second one. They knew going into that second game that they were going to have two chances to win the series but would have wanted to get it done the first time around. That wasn’t the case so now they will have to pick themselves up and go again.
If Sri Lanka are going to win this match then they are going to need to bat better. They haven’t really got off to a good start with the bat. Their middle order delivered in the opening game but if their top three can come to the party then we know that they have the bowlers to be very competitive in this final game. To leave without a series win from the tour would be hard for Sri Lanka to take so we should expect the best of them here.
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Team News
There is absolutely no need for New Zealand to make any changes from such an emphatic win in the previous game but they haven’t used their squad in the series yet so it might be that they use the likes of Matt Henry here.
You would imagine that Sri Lanka will do some jigging around with their batting for this final match of the series. Whether that is in a change of personnel or sending someone up the order to get on with the run rate.
Betting
This will be the first T20 international at Queenstown and I always think when these outgrounds that rarely get international cricket get to host a game they ensure there is a pitch which delivers plenty of entertainment so that they are back in the conversation the next time these matches are circulated. There was an ODI here a while ago which was rain affected and New Zealand smashed up 283/4 in the 21 overs they eventually played which tells us what can happen on this track.
This is not a big ground, to be fair there aren’t many in New Zealand that are, so I’m expecting to see plenty of boundaries in this match. Even though Sri Lanka have just been bowled out for only 141 in Dunedin they still hit seven sixes in that innings and New Zealand hit half a dozen of their own in the run chase. That all makes me think that the 11.5 sixes line for this match is not nearly enough. New Zealand chased that score down in the last game with the likes of Daryl Mitchell and Jimmy Neesham in the shed so there is a lot more to come. I like the over here.
Tips
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