Sri Lanka end their brief tour of South Africa this week and after the decimation both physically and mentally in the opening game last week they will probably be delighted to get away and get back to home comforts.
Before they can do that they must beat their hosts to seal a share of the series whereas South Africa know that if they avoid defeat in Johannesburg then they will set off for their next assignment in Pakistan with a series win under their belts.
South Africa
You wouldn’t say it was a completely perfect performance from South Africa in the opening match. Although they ended up winning it by an innings and in pretty convincing fashion, they were going round the park at quite some lick on the opening day so it might be that they were indebted to the injuries that Sri Lanka picked up to make life much easier for them. Winning can quickly become a habit though so they ultimately got what they wanted.
The other thing they got was a mountain of runs into some key batsmen and there can be no substitute for that. It has given them an excellent platform to move forward from and you would think there is a lot more to come from them. That should happen here because the ball always does plenty at The Wanderers and also moving forward when they get key bowlers back at their disposal. This is a side in transition but they are not in a bad place.
Sri Lanka
It is hard to judge Sri Lanka in that opening match because clearly the injuries hampered them to such a nasty extent. What we can admire is the way they batted on the opening day and while the bowling wasn’t up to much cop it still has to be put away and to do it in conditions which weren’t necessarily ones they are used to was to their credit. Ultimately their score was made to look ordinary but they deserved a bit more than that.
The big issue Sri Lana have here is getting a side out given the injuries that they have sustained and even if they do manage to get a team on the field, how competitive and up for the contest it will be remains to be seen. They should be competitive with the bat even in these conditions but the acid test is going to come with what they can provide with the ball. If they offer something with that we could see a special game of cricket. That might be unlikely though.
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Team News
Kagiso Rabada has already been ruled out of this match and with Glenton Stuurman already being released from the quad due to injuries, it looks like South Africa will line up at Johannesburg the same as they did at Centurion.
Sri Lanka will be forced into a number of changes with Dushmantha Chameera and Lahiru Thirimanne expected to come into the side. There are also likely to be debuts for Asitha Fernando and Minod Bhanuka in what is a very patched up Sri Lanka side.
Betting
I’ll take a performance bet for this match which comes in the form of Keshav Maharaj whose impact in the match could be fairly minimal. Such is the lack of effect that spin generally has at The Wanderers, South Africa have actually gone in with an all-seam attack in the last two matches here and relied on part-timers to tweak a few to give their bowlers a break. That doesn’t appear to be their strategy here which is good because I think his performance line is too high at 86.5pts.
I say that because in 25 overs at Centurion, the finger spinner didn’t pick up a single wicket and the conditions at The Wanderers is very much more in favour of the seamers who can use the altitude to get the ball jagging around. You’ve got to think Maharaj will bat once at the most and unless he scores a substantial amount with the bat I just don’t see him having enough of an impact with the ball to cover this total. The Sri Lankan batsmen will be more comfortable against the spin and with South Africa having four seamers I don’t see much spin being needed at all. I’ll play the under here.
Tips
WON – Back K.Maharaj’s Performance – Under 86.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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