The New Zealand home international summer begins on Friday in the UK, or Saturday in New Zealand, when a two match Test series between the Kiwis and Sri Lanka gets underway in Wellington.
Both these sides have plenty of commitments in a busy winter which has already got going with both having played series prior to this in the UAE and Sri Lanka respectively. There isn’t a lot of room to move in these short series so all the action will count.
Schedule (UK dates)
1st Test: 14-18 Dec at Wellington
2nd Test: 25-29 Dec at Christchurch
New Zealand
If ever New Zealand needed a confidence boost heading into their international summer they certainly got it when they went to the UAE and won recently. They were deserving winners of that series if for no other reason than they held themselves together when it mattered the most. Often that is all it takes these days but to get a road series win is a very good achievement.
That sets the Kiwis up nicely for this series as they are generally a pretty strong force on their own patch although these two match series don’t really allow their best cricket to flow. They might actually be much further up the rankings were they to play more in this format. Given the amount of two match series they play they are not doing too badly.
Sri Lanka
If New Zealand begun their winter with a confidence boost then it was the complete opposite for Sri Lanka who were well beaten at home by England. I think many would have expected England to edge the series but they actually dominated it and that should send shock waves through the Sri Lankan dressing room.
Sri Lanka haven’t been very good on the road for quite some time so they are up against it here let alone in Australia where they head to after this series. It might be that Sri Lanka decide to aim for competitiveness initially in a walk before you can run sort of scenario. Whether that is possible in such a short series remains to be seen though.
Head to Head
These two nations have played out 15 previous bilateral series with New Zealand comfortably having the edge with six wins to the four of Sri Lanka. There have been five draws in that time too but when it comes to series in New Zealand it is 5-1 in favour of the home side with two draws in among that so history is on the side of the Kiwis.
Of those series wins in New Zealand, the hosts have won 10 of the 12 matches so they are usually pretty dominant against the Asian outfit on their own patch and that highlights the size of the task for Sri Lanka here because much stronger squads than this one have gone to New Zealand and failed to bring home the bacon.
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Betting
Regular readers will know I’m not a massive fan of betting on two match series because one freak innings or haul here or there has a huge impact on proceedings so the value is limited and the chances of the form book playing out is much less than I would usually like. There is one bet that stands out enough for me however.
Suranga Lakmal was as good as he could have been against England last month and he should enjoy New Zealand conditions a lot more and be even more effective than he was in Sri Lanka. I’m not expecting Sri Lanka to take too many of the 40 wickets available to them in this series but however many they do take I think Lakmal will take a significant percentage of them.
Tips
Back S.Lakmal Top Sri Lanka Series Bowler for a 2/10 stake at 4.00 with Bet365
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