The brief Test series between Sri Lanka and West Indies concludes this week and after a pretty dominant performance in the opening match last week, Sri Lanka will be looking to complete a whitewash when the two sides meet in Galle from Monday.
West Indies go into this match looking to repair the damage of the opening game and even though they can’t win the series any longer, there are World Test Championship points on the line here so this is an important match for both teams.
Sri Lanka
I would imagine Sri Lanka will be more than content with their display in the opening match of the series. When you consider that their cricket had been a diet of T20 action in recent times, to put up the sort of showing that they did will be very encouraging. What was even more interesting is that their captain in the lead up to this match has warned his side about getting complacent. That is an intent of their aim to win this match and send Mickey Arthur out of post in style.
The biggest thing Sri Lanka did in that first game was win the toss. It is a massive advantage to do that but you still have to deliver the goods after winning it and Sri Lanka did. They piled up the runs with their experienced players standing up and being counted and then in conditions that really suited their spinners they took full advantage. The likelihood is that this pitch is going to suit them even more so Sri Lanka are in a good place.
West Indies
To be fair to West Indies they battled hard in that opening match. They lost the toss so they were immediately behind the game and then they failed to take an early wicket but from the time they broke a big opening stand they were relatively competitive throughout the contest. If anything they were guilty of lacking a little patience with the bat at the top of the order but you can understand that knowing what was to come deeper into the innings.
There isn’t a whole lot more West Indies need to do other than occupy the crease a bit more with their top order, although when you consider the disarray they had with the concussion of Jeremy Solozano they probably deserve a little bit of slack. They could do with winning the toss and then we’ll see just what West Indies are made of. There were certainly enough signs in that opening game that they are improving in this format.
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Team News
Of the 165 overs Sri Lanka bowled in the first Test, just 18 of them were bowled by the seamers so it would appear Sri Lanka are going to rest one of those and go in with the extra batter. That means Charith Asalanka is in line to make a debut.
West Indies will be assessing the fitness of Jeremy Solozano after the concussion he suffered in the first Test. He is expected to play if he is fit but if he isn’t then Shai Hope will get his spot and is likely to open the batting.
Betting
There were 967 runs in the first match but the pitch here is expected to start taking huge amounts of turn from a much earlier point in this contest so the runs line for this match might not get touched. The line is 902.5 which looks fairly high in this part of the world at the best of times but particularly when we are going to get a trial by spin like we are going to get here. West Indies could only score 390 in two innings in that opening match so if they bat first here it is hard to see this line being covered.
I guess the danger is Sri Lanka batting first but there is every chance they will only have to bat once if they do put up a score of any significance. West Indies are not good players of spin. This is nothing new. They haven’t been for a while and they are not going to improve that here suddenly. If West Indies can keep Dimuth Karunaratne a little quieter than they did in the opening game then it is hard to see this match containing anywhere near 902.5 runs.
Tips
Back Under 902.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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