South Africa will go in search of a series whitewash on Saturday when they head to Cape Town to take on Sri Lanka in the fifth and final ODI. Sri Lanka have lost all their momentum after a good showing in the Tests and have one last chance to get it back ahead of the T20s.
I keep on mentioning the World Cup which is now just over 10 weeks away and matches are running out to finalise preparations for that tournament so while this is a dead rubber technically, neither side should be taking it lightly.
New customers, bet €/£20 on the Exchange and if your first bet loses, we’ll refund you €/£20 in Cash. Bet must be placed in first 7 days of account opening. T&Cs apply. 18+|Gamble Aware. Perfect for the weekend sport!
South Africa
I was a little concerned about complacency for South Africa in the last match but they showed that they are up for the challenge of completing the whitewash in this series and so it would be a major surprise if they don’t complete their aim now. One more decent performance should be enough for them to claim the clean sweep that they desire.
Their success in the previous match was centred round their bowling effort. Sri Lanka never looked like getting beyond 200 and dead rubber or not you don’t win matches at this level without doing that. In truth, it wasn’t the best South Africa batting performance of all time but it was credible enough which was all that counted.
Sri Lanka
It is now four successive matches that Sri Lanka have not been competitive in this format of the game and they have one last chance to pick up a win and avoid the embarrassment of being whitewashed in the series. In order for that to happen they have to deliver their very best performance so far, which with confidence surely low will not be easy.
I feared for Sri Lanka in this series heading into it because there is nothing in their attack to repel the South Africa batsmen and we have seen that throughout the four matches thus far. That puts pressure on their batting line up to deliver the goods but they simply haven’t been good enough to handle that expectation and a 4-0 series deficit has been the result.
Team News
South Africa are expected to play an unchanged side as they go in search of the whitewash. This will be JP Duminy’s last ODI on home soil with him retiring after the upcoming World Cup. Hashim Amla continues to be rested.
Sri Lanka will have to choose whether to stick with Priyamal Perera or select Angelo Perera. It might be that the latter gets a go as Sri Lanka look to end their rot in this format of the game. Isuru Udana earned his spot in the previous match.
[the_ad_group id=”3624″]
Betting
I took South Africa to win the previous match by a sizeable margin and I’m happy to do the same here, especially with the handicap line near enough the same as it was in the last game. Sri Lanka looked like a beaten side in that match and with conditions at Newlands expected to favour the batsmen, South Africa should dominate again.
The margin between these two sides looks to be getting greater the longer the series goes on and I expect that to remain the case in this final game. The handicap is once again 5.5 wickets and only 31.5 runs. I don’t see Sri Lanka getting within that many runs and with the way South Africa are batting they can chase down a target with wickets in hand too.
Tips
VOID – Back South Africa (-5.5wickets/31.5runs) to beat Sri Lanka for a 4/10 stake at 1.73 with Bet365
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2019
