There is just the one match in the T20 World Cup 2021 on Thursday and it is a big match for the two sides involved as Australia take on Sri Lanka in Group 1 of the Super 12s at the Dubai International Stadium.
Australia edged out South Africa in their opening match of the competition and a win here would have them very handy for a place in the semi-final, while Sri Lanka were also winners first time out and would enhance their last four hopes with a win here too.
Australia
While Australia got the win in the opening match you wouldn’t say it was a completely resounding performance. They got the job done in the first few overs with the ball really as South Africa were three down early and were unable to recover. The fact it took Australia almost the full 20 overs to chase down a modest total of 120 throws up more than the odd concern, particularly when going into the tournament their success or otherwise was going to be determined by how their batting fired.
Australia have big problems at the top of their order and until they sort that out there is going to be a lot of pressure on the likes of Glenn Maxwell and Steve Smith to deliver the goods even if the Aussie bowlers go well. To be fair to Australia, they have an attack that should be able to prosper in these conditions if not thrive in them. It might be that their team needed the run out in the opening match and will naturally improve here. They might need to though.
Sri Lanka
The Sri Lankans are riding the crest of a wave in this tournament and will have taken even more confidence from their opening Super 12s win than they would have done from their three first round victories. I say that because their bowlers did a bit of a clean up job in their first three matches to get them to this stage but they found a much better Sharjah wicket in their first game at this level much harder to bowl on.
That was a worry at the halfway point against Bangladesh because their batting hadn’t really fired up to that point. It is very much to their credit though that they chased down a sizeable score against a competent bowling attack so now they know they can win matches with the bat and the ball. There is probably more to come from them in both departments as well because they were missing a key bowler against Bangladesh and a couple of senior batsmen were out cheaply.
Special Offer
Sign up for a Boylesports account to get up to £25 in free bets! Perfect offer for this tournament! Click the image below for this great offer! New accounts only. 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Key Men
You get the feeling Steve Smith is going to be doing a lot of rebuilding for Australia in this tournament if they persist with the out of touch Dave Warner at the top of the innings. Smith will be key here anyway as a decent player of spin.
It is vital that Sri Lanka don’t let the Australia top order set the innings up for the likes of Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis so the new ball spell of Dushmantha Chameera is going to be key. He might be equally as important at the end of the innings.
Betting
Bookmakers have Australia as very warm favourites for this match, and while I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if they pick up the victory, I don’t have them as clear winners in the way they do. Australia have spent the last couple of months struggling against the spin attacks of the West Indies and Bangladesh and the Sri Lankan bowling diet is on a similar trend so I expect Sri Lanka to cause Australia a lot of problems here.
It might be that Australia win the match on the strength of their own bowling attack but this Sri Lanka batting unit is beginning to come to the boil I sense and if they avoid getting themselves into a mess in the powerplay then they are more than capable of putting up a competitive score. I’m not going to go quite as far as to back Sri Lanka here because the teams batting second seem to have a clear advantage here, but with Sri Lanka getting a 5.5 wicket or 20.5 run head start on the handicap, I’m happy to bet in that direction.
Tips
Back Sri Lanka (+5.5wickets/20.5runs) to beat Australia for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Bet365
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2021
