New Zealand begin a white ball tour of Sri Lanka on Saturday when the two sides meet in the opening game of two scheduled T20 games in Dambulla as they build up towards an ODI series which carries more significance.
While these T20s have no real context to them, it gives both teams the chance to continue to put a dismal T20 World Cup campaign earlier in the year behind them while also getting used to each other ahead of the ODIs.
Sri Lanka
To be fair to Sri Lanka, they looked like they quickly put that T20 World Cup disappointment behind them when they got the better of West Indies in a recent T20 series in this part of the world. They had to come from behind in that series but that didn’t worry them as they won the last two games easily and they will be looking to pick up where they left off here and ensure that they go into the second game on Sunday with at least a share of the series secured.
After a bit of an indifferent bowling showing in the opening game of that series, Sri Lanka got it right in the second and third ones and actually put in two complete showings which should give them a lot of confidence to take into these two matches with them. They have a bowling unit which is particularly handy in these conditions and if their batters can come to the party then they can be tough to beat both in this series and ones to come.
New Zealand
We always say it but this will be a tough assignment for New Zealand and tougher than usual actually. They haven’t had a warm up match and it is less than a week since they were winning a Test series in India and as a result of that they have named a second string squad for these two matches. While that gives some players who might not otherwise have had it the chance to impress, it kind of shows where these two games lie in their list of priorities, especially with an ODI series to come and a Test series against England getting underway in under three weeks.
Generally whoever they pick New Zealand have a deep enough batting unit to do the job. If they can bat well here then they will give themselves a chance but this is a bowling unit which with the exception of Mitchell Santner and Lockie Ferguson will be giving opportunities to others to impress. This will be the first T20 that New Zealand will have played since their disappointing T20 World Cup so whoever is on the field will be out to show that they are better than they showed there.
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Team News
Sri Lanka have named a 17-man squad for this series which feels like a lot when you consider there are only two matches. Dinesh Chandimal and Chamindu Wickramasinghe will be hoping there is room for them in the starting XI.
New Zealand have very much a second string squad out for this series. Mitchell Santner will lead the side, one which has two potential debutants in their squad in Worcestershire all-rounder Nathan Smith and Mitchell Hay.
Betting
It will probably come as no surprise to regular readers that I’m going to start the series off with a player performance bet or that it comes in the form of Wanindu Hasaranga who continues to be a huge performer for Sri Lanka. He had a decent series against West Indies recently and on a pitch which is expected to take some turn there is no reason why he won’t be a similar threat against a New Zealand side who were ordinary against spin when they were in Sri Lanka for Test matches recently.
Hasaranga has a performance line of 42.5 for this match which feels low to me. I say that because he is likely to get a bat and if he knocks three runs then we will only need two wickets from him and he generally threatens those in this format of the game. We might not even need him to get those three runs as he often Fields in key positions where catches come along quite readily. However he gets there, there is enough point scoring potential in Hasaranga to think that the over is a good bet on a modest performance line.
Tips
Back W.Hasaranga’s Performance – Over 42.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
