The South Africa against Sri Lanka T20 series is going to be played at a ferocious pace with all three matches being played in five days and the first one comes along on Friday at SuperSport Park in Centurion.
While the context of these T20 international series can often be lost at least this series is three matches and with that in mind whoever wins this first game will have immediate control of the series.
South Africa
It is hard to judge the form of South Africa heading into this match because they have picked a squad which has done well in the domestic T20 tournament in recent times rather than their usual strong squad. That means some big players won’t be in action here and some players get the chance to play at this level for the first time.
One thing we always know about South Africa is they are a passionate and committed bunch and whoever goes out onto the field will be desperate to perform well and win the match. They have the freedom to express themselves and try and force a chance when the stronger squads are selected.
Sri Lanka
The Sri Lankans will need to restore some pride in this series after getting a bit of a tonking in the Test matches. At the current time their best chance probably comes in the 20 over format which is more of a lottery than the other forms and any gulf in class can be levelled out a little bit.
The big test will be whether their batsmen can score the amount of runs that is required on fast scoring grounds where big scores come regularly. If they can do that then the mixture and variety in their bowling attack could well lead them to victory or at the very least make South Africa work hard for their win.
Team News
It is all change for South Africa for this series but David Miller, Ferhaan Behardien and Imran Tahir are all expected to keep their places. JJ Smuts, Heino Kuhn and Dane Paterson are among those coming in from the fringes.
Sri Lanka will be without Lasith Malinga for this series while Thisara Perera is playing in the Big Bash so he isn’t around either. All eyes will be on whichever spinners Sri Lanka pick while Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal are experienced heads.
Betting
This match isn’t the easiest one to find bets for because we don’t know how this makeshift South Africa side will play. They should be fine but it can be a risk to throw too many fringe or new players into the side so I’m not going big on this match.
I flagged Angelo Mathews up to have a big series in my series preview and I expect him to have a big first match here. Amazingly his performance line is 30.5 which for someone who bowls his four overs in key times in this format and who is such a class act with the bat that looks very low. He is captain too so he’ll field around the bat and I’d be surprised if he doesn’t reach 31pts.
Tips
VOID – Back A.Mathews’ Performance – Over 30.5pts for a 4/10 stake at 1.73 with Bet365
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