Sri Lanka and England will look to battle each other for the second time on Saturday when they play the latest ODI of the series but sadly once again it looks as though their biggest battle will once again come in the form of the rain.
The first game on Wednesday was looking like it was going to deliver a decent game of cricket but the clouds filled in and that was that. The good thing about this second match is that there is a reserve day but it appears we will need it.
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Sri Lanka
I don’t think Dinesh Chandimal necessarily wanted to bowl first in the opening match of the series because the wicket looked fantastic for batting, as England proved, but the time of the year dictated it and you get the impression if Sri Lanka are to make a positive impact on the outcome of this series in the end, he will need to win more tosses than he loses given we are in the middle of monsoon season.
We didn’t see a huge amount of cricket in that opening match but the action that we did see gave us the immediate realisation that Sri Lanka are going to have to drastically up their game. I always think you can tell plenty about a side from how they look in the field and in the 15 overs we saw on Wednesday, Sri Lanka resembled something of a joke in truth.
England
I wondered all along just what England would get out of this series and in truth I’m still wondering. The early signs are that the action we will see will be heavily skewed by the conditions and even then nothing is going to be relevant when it comes to the World Cup next summer. If England win the series they will be expected to. If they lose it confidence disappears and doubters come along.
England were positive in the 15 overs they faced in the opening game but then they still showed their crazy side. It is all well and good having a positive approach, and I agree with it, but moments of madness or a lack of understanding of the game situation in a crucial knockout game can be the difference between winning a World Cup and not. England have proved their aggressive intentions and that they are good enough to deliver on it. Now they need to show they can dig in when they need as well.
Team News
Given that we only saw 15 overs in the first match there is probably nothing to suggest that Sri Lanka will make any changes to their side. If they do make any it is likely to be just a last minute issue which will only be determined on the day of the game.
England might think about making a change though. If the rain is going to set in then playing three proper spinners makes absolutely no sense. I would expect one of the Curran brothers or Mark Wood to come into the side at his expense.
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Betting
I think you have to be a little bit reckless to bet on the match outcome of any game in this series before we know the way the toss goes. I’m not that crazy but I do like the look of a couple of bets as we go along in the hope the game goes ahead.
The first of those is the same bet I took in the opening match which is for Jonny Bairstow to score less than 32.5 runs. He only made 25 in the first game and this pitch is only going to be tougher with the amount of time it has spent under covers. Sri Lanka never opened with a spinner in the first game but that will surely change which will make scoring 33 runs tougher for him. On that note I think Akila Dananjaya can cover a performance line of 37.5pts. He has taken two wickets or more in five of his last eight ODIs and one wicket in the other three. In two of those three matches he has bowled five overs or less so the chances are he would have taken two wickets in those as well. He is a capable batsman should we need him to score with the bat so the over looks decent enough to me.
Tips
WON – Back J.Bairstow – Under 32.5 runs for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Coral
Back him here:
WON – Back A.Dananjaya’s Performance – Over 37.5pts for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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