South Africa and Sri Lanka head to the capital to kick off their ODI series on Sunday when the two sides meet for the first of five matches over the next couple of weeks. This one takes place in Johannesburg where there is always a buzz about the contests.
It might be a five match series and there might be room to recover from a slow start to it but I’m sure both teams will be wanting to control their own destiny from the front so I’m expecting the pair of them to be at full tilt here.
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South Africa
The last time we saw South Africa in this format they were beating Pakistan and you would have to think that they would have Sri Lanka covered on that basis, but as we saw in the Test series, a surprise is never far away in this game. I don’t know for sure but I would imagine the outcomes in those Tests will do South Africa well here as they should be smarting from what happened and want to put it right.
One of the themes I will be looking out for in this series is how well South Africa bat in their middle and lower order. With AB de Villiers now signed up to play in the T20 Blast in England this summer it wouldn’t be the biggest U-turn ever known for him to return for the World Cup. His absence certainly has left a hole in this batting line up which the Proteas have not been able to fill yet.
Sri Lanka
I guess if Sri Lanka are going to come good again in this format it is going to be now. They have their tails up whereas South Africa might be second guessing themselves after what happened in the Test series although admittedly they are two different games. Sri Lanka’s players should at least take plenty of belief with them into this series and sometimes that can be all they lack.
I think the top three of Sri Lanka are going to be pretty key in this series. If South Africa have a real strength at the minute then it comes in the form of their new ball attack where they are blessed with options. If Sri Lanka’s top order can nullify the new ball they have players further down their order who can get stuck in and catch up.
Team News
South Africa are likely to give a rest to either Dale Steyn or Kagiso Rabada here with the former probably being the most likely I would suggest. Anrich Nortje and Lungi Ngidi are expected to come in while Rassie van der Dussen will bat at three.
Once again there will be no Angelo Mathews for Sri Lanka but Kusal Mendis will be looking to back up his wonderful Test series over these five matches. Akila Dananjaya is able to bowl again and is expected to return to the side.
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Betting
I think the one thing that we can take out of the Test series to use in this series is that Sri Lanka have the quality with the bat to put scores on the board. You would think it would be slightly easier to do that in these matches too with the pitches likely to suit run scoring in preparation for the World Cup. South Africa aren’t what they were with the bat but there is a fair bit of depth to their line up.
With that in mind, and knowing that the ball flies further and faster in the thin air of Johannesburg I’m happy to take more than 59.5 boundaries in this match. Sri Lanka might not have done much in terms of wins recently but they have put up 298 or more in three of their last four ODI matches, which were against England and New Zealand. I’ll take the over.
Tips
Back Over 59.5 boundaries for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with William Hill
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