Sri Lanka won the first Test of their two match series against New Zealand more than a shade easier than many expected, taking the early lead in the World Test Championship standings as a result, and on Thursday they will be looking to win the series when the two sides meet on Colombo.
The home side know that avoiding defeat will do that for them while New Zealand will know anything but a win in this second match will see them lose the series and be playing catch up in the standings of the new competition.
Sri Lanka
Full credit must go to Sri Lanka for winning the first Test, not just because they won it when many expected them to struggle, even in home conditions, but especially because they won it despite not having the luxury of batting first. Not too many Test matches are won in Asian conditions by the side batting second so you really do have to applaud them for that. That should in theory give them so much confidence going into this match.
If there is an area where Sri Lanka would like to improve it is probably to be a little more ruthless with the ball. They almost let New Zealand get away from them in the opening match especially in the second innings so if they are going to become anything like a force in the game they will need to tidy that up. They were missing bowlers though so they might feel that improvement comes naturally.
New Zealand
Given that they had so much in their favour in the first Test, New Zealand will have been disappointed to lose the opening match of the series. I’m not convinced we should be writing them off though necessarily, as they are a resilient bunch and have shown they can be competitive in these conditions. That said, they are the ones under pressure to pick up the win here so there might be a time where they have to force things.
New Zealand will want to be more clinical with the ball I think it is fair to say. You would have expected them to have enough runs on the board after their second innings but in truth they never got close to bowling Sri Lanka out for a second time. They are going to have to do that here if they are going to win the match and get a share of the series.
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Team News
Sri Lanka are hoping to have Dilruwan Perera back in their ranks after he has recovered from the injury which kept him out of the first match of the series. Lasith Embuldeniya could be the man to make way for him.
New Zealand may well make a change as well to bring in the extra seamer in place of one of their spinners. Will Somerville looks like the man most likely to miss out with the fiery Neil Wagner expected to come in.
Betting
As with the first Test I’ll go with the one bet here, slightly concerned about the weather in this part of the world at this time of year. BJ Watling put up a performance score of 113pts and given that there is more pace and bounce in this wicket meaning it is more likely to suit the Kiwi bowlers, I’ve got to think that the New Zealand wicket keeper will at least emulate his score of the first game if not better it.
His performance line for this match is 87.5 which looks on the low side when you think that he averages 43.62 against Sri Lanka in this format of the game and prior to the first Test he took at least five catches in every Test he has played against this opposition. He did make a stumping last week so there is every reason to think he’ll be scoring with the gloves and his solid approach with the bat should be enough to polish off what is needed for him to cover this total.
Tips
WON – Back BJ.Watling’s Performance – Over 87.5pts for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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