A strangely scheduled ODI series between Sri Lanka and South Africa gets underway in Colombo on Thursday when the two sides meet for the first of the three times they will battle it out over the next week or so.
When you consider there is a World T20 beginning next month you could be forgiven for thinking that the attention of these two sides would be on the shortest format of the game but that isn’t the case. They both need to take this series seriously as well as it carries World Cup Super Series points.
Sri Lanka
The Sri Lankans have had plenty of problems in recent times, particularly in this format, and as such they are in real danger of having to qualify for the World Cup. With the way some of the emerging nations are improving at a rate of knots there would be no guarantee of qualifying so that is very much an outcome Sri Lanka will be looking to avoid. If they are to do that then they are going to need to start winning some 50 over matches and quickly.
If they are going to do that then their batsmen are going to have to come up with the goods. They have struggled for too long and it is a bit of a shame because they are putting together a bowling attack with the quality required to have Sri Lanka competitive in a lot of matches. If they can find some runs, and we’re not talking about the 350+ scores that England put up, then it wouldn’t be a surprise if they build up a head of steam in 50 over cricket.
South Africa
While the slump of Sri Lanka is understandable, the struggles of South Africa is much more of a surprise. Admittedly they are in transition with some star players having retired over the last couple of years or so but they still have more than enough talent to be doing a whole lot better than what they are doing. They are another side who are under a bit of pressure to start winning if they are going to avoid the ignominy of having to go through qualifying for the next World Cup.
South Africa are in the same boat as their opponents in terms of what they need in order to start picking up wins in this format. A settled team would certainly help them and they don’t seem to be able to get that at the minute, but whoever does play needs to score more runs for them. It has been a while since there was a South Africa side who you thought would put up regular 300+ scores that would have them as one of the best teams in this format.
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Team News
Kusal Perera has been named in the squad for this series but it appears he isn’t in line to play in this opening match. Sri Lanka are expected to play three spinners with Praveen Jayawickrama likely to get the nod as the third one.
South Africa are without Quinton de Kock, David Miller and Lungi Ngidi for this series which means there is a chance for the likes of Heinrich Klaasen and Kyle Verreynne to showcase their talents for the cricket to come.
Betting
I’ll ease my way into this series with just the one bet, one which comes in the form of the player performance of Wanindu Hasaranga, the Sri Lanka leg spinner who has a big few weeks coming up as after this series and the T20s which follow it, he will head off for his IPL debut. He’ll want to go there with some decent form to his name and would appear to have the ideal opponent to build his confidence against given that South Africa will struggle against spin in these conditions.
He has a performance line of 39.5 points and I’m not sure that is going to be high enough. That is only two wickets and again when you consider how South Africa play spin there is a good chance that he’ll get those wickets but even if he doesn’t he is a much better batsman than someone who comes in for a hit at number seven. In saying that, those above him are either out of form or inexperienced so there is a good chance he’ll get into bat in time to contribute strongly with that. Put it all together and he should go over 39.5pts here.
Tips
Back W.Hasaranga’s Performance – Over 39.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.73 with Bet365
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