Australia conclude their tour of Sri Lanka with a two-match ODI series with the first of those matches coming along in Colombo on Wednesday when the two sides go at it looking to secure a share of the spoils at the first time of asking.
Sri Lanka are building for the future in this format whereas for Australia they will be able to sort out some of the issues that they have heading into the Champions Trophy, a tournament in which they will look to add the trophy to their World Cup one.
Sri Lanka
Having made a complete mess of the 50 over World Cup in India 15 or so months ago, Sri Lanka have no Champions Trophy campaign on the horizon so they are very much looking forward two years to the next World Cup and aiming to peak by the time that they get to South Africa and Zimbabwe. Although there is little immediate context to their 50 over work, no team has played more ODIs since that last World Cup and Sri Lanka have had a fair degree of success too.
The key to winning in any white ball context is having a bowling attack which can be flexible and effective in all conditions and that is what Sri Lanka are developing. It is particularly important that their battery of seam bowlers continue to develop and their pool get deeper over the next two years before that World Cup. The other factor behind the Sri Lanka success has been a good batting unit which has expertise in setting up the innings up top before the power players come and finish the innings off.
Australia
Sri Lanka might have made a mess of that last World Cup but Australia certainly didn’t. They won that tournament and will be looking to back that up in the Champions Trophy which gets underway next week. There have been a few changes in their ranks since that World Cup and some injuries mean that it will be a different squad doing battle in Pakistan and UAE over the remainder of the month and these two matches offer up the chance for Australia to get game time into everyone head of the event.
Australia are usually pretty strong with the ball, although their depth will be tested in that department given the injuries that they have, so it will be interesting to see if that remains the case here or not. You would imagine in these conditions that Australia might not be at their best with the ball so their batters might need to come to the party. They were good enough in the Test series but it will be a much changed batting unit which goes into battle here.
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Team News
Sri Lanka are yet to name their side for this match but they pulled the likes of Asitha Fernando, Wanindu Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana back from franchise tournaments early so they are taking this series seriously.
Australia are going to be without the injured duo of Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood for this series and Marcus Stoinis suddenly surprised everyone when he retired from ODI cricket. Steve Smith is expected to captain the side with Mitch Marsh also absent.
Betting
If you go through the last 10 ODI matches on this ground there has only been one score over 265 so that makes me think that we are going to get a low scoring match here. That would make sense anyway when you consider that a number of the players on show are going to need time to adjust to the conditions and in truth there isn’t a huge amount riding on this game anyway. Another factor is the heat and humidity so unless there is dew around, which in a day game is extremely unlikely, the pitch should tire as we go along.
Australia aren’t at full strength but they have enough about them with the ball to be competitive while Sri Lanka are solid enough with the ball as well. Sri Lanka probably have the edge with the bat in these conditions but they will have been involved in the majority of those recent ODIs where the scoring has been low. The run line for this one is 535.5 which just feels a little on the high side based on recent matches at this fairly big ground.
Tips
Back Under 535.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Betway
