The second part of the double header at the T20 World Cup 2021 on Monday sees the favourites to come out of Group A in action when Sri Lanka take on the lowest ranked side in the section in the form of Namibia.
Both teams will know the importance of getting off to a good start to ease the pressure on their final two matches. Sri Lanka are expected to dominate this group while Namibia might be targeting winning their other two outings to make progress.
Namibia
The Africans head to this tournament with nobody really speaking about them. I would imagine the main reason for that is because the other three teams in their group are much more established, but this is a team who have won 18 of the 22 T20 internationals they have competed in, and while they were at a lower level to this, winning matches is no bad thing whoever you are beating. It shows they have a winning mentality and a desire to show how good they are.
Namibia couldn’t translate that form into success in the warm up matches for this tournament, although their two defeats were to the two teams who won on Monday so perhaps that wasn’t a bad set of results. The Namibians look strong with the bat and could challenge a few teams at this level in that department, but If they are going to do anything in this group then you sense they will need their senior bowlers to have good tournaments.
Sri Lanka
The pressure is all on Sri Lanka in this match and at least one to follow it. They haven’t always been the best under intense pressure and they only need to look to what happened to Bangladesh on Sunday to see what can happen if they are not quite on it. One positive for Sri Lanka though is that they have played a lot of T20 cricket this year and have built something of a settled side. If they make progress through the tournament then conditions could suit them so there is a lot of intensity on Sri Lanka in this group.
One thing we’ve seen throughout the year is that their bowlers are starting to come to the party in this format. They have two genuine world class operators with the ball in Wanindu Hasaranga and Dushmantha Chameera and if the other bowlers support them Sri Lanka should go ok. They have recently moved Avishka Fernando and Dinesh Chandimal around in the order which looks to have had a big effect so if they handle the pressure, Sri Lanka should feel good about their chances.
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Key Men
David Wiese is the household name within this Namibia side and while there are others in the team who are maybe more important with the bat, the whole all-round package that the former South Africa international provides will be key to the hopes of the Africans here.
Avishka Fernando has caught fire since the move to drop him into the middle order and he goes into this match off the back of smashed three 50s in the four warm up matches Sri Lanka have had and looks set for a big tournament not just a big match here.
Betting
We’ve seen one big shock in this tournament already, but I have to be honest and say I don’t expect to see another one here. The move to bring Mahela Jayawardena in as a temporary consultant is a masterstroke because there aren’t many better cricketing brains out there than him and Sri Lanka should really benefit as a result. However I’m still acutely aware that all the pressure is on them here and so I don’t need money on them with the potential to wilt.
I’ll head to the player markets instead for a bet here with the one which interests me being on another of the Sri Lankan players who I expect to perform well in this tournament in Wanindu Hasaranga. He has a performance line of 31.5 points and I think that is very attainable. I’m not relying on him batting but there is a chance that he could do that and he’s more than useful with the willow to knock some of this target off but he’ll cover it if he takes two wickets and I believe he has that in him. You often see these associate sides fare well against what you would call natural bowling but when they take on mystery stuff they are often found wanting. Hasaranga should thrive in these conditions and better sides than Namibia have struggled against him. I think he covers that performance target here.
Tips
Back W.Hasaranga’s Performance – Over 31.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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