The Super 12 stage of the T20 World Cup continues with another double header on Sunday with the first of the two games coming from Bellerive Oval in Hobart as two teams who progressed from the first round meet when Sri Lanka go up against Ireland.
Both teams did their job in the opening round despite suffering heavy defeats in their first game but they have to reset their expectations and start again here. There are tougher tests to come for both sides so this is a match they’ll be keen not to lose.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lana have been in this situation before. They came through their opening group in even more emphatic fashion than they did this year in the 2021 World Cup but they couldn’t maintain their performances in the Super 12 stage and just allowed a promising looking campaign fizzle out into something that resembled a damp squib. They will be determined not to allow that to happen this time around so all eyes will be on their intensity here.
Injuries are beginning to mount up for Sri Lanka though so this really will be a big test of them. I still think they have the bowling attack to get the job done in this match so the attention should come on the batters here. They haven’t exactly fired as one in the tournament anyway, although a lot of the reason for that was the tacky pitch in Geelong. There are no concerns on that front here so despite the injuries this should be a good chance to see a dominant performance from the Asia Cup champions.
Ireland
Ireland arrived at this tournament with the immediate aim of putting to bed the shocking display they put in at the last T20 World Cup. When they were well beaten in their opening game they could have been forgiven for thinking that lightning was going to strike again but as it turned out all it became was a wakeup call. They were much better in their last two matches and showed us some of the quality that we knew they possess.
It probably isn’t a coincidence that both of their wins in the opening stage of the competition came when they were chasing a score. They don’t have a brilliant bowling attack and on pitches which don’t do a lot a lot of their attack are cannon fodder so having the batters to back those bowlers up eases the pressure on them a little. The positive from the two wins was in the first one it was the middle order that got the job done and in the second one the top order won them the game. That is never a bad thing.
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Team News
Sri Lanka’s campaign has been one of injuries so far and they picked up another in the last match when Pathum Nissanka tweaked a groin. That has kept him out of this one which means that Ashen Bandara will come in.
Ireland haven’t changed their team so far in the competition so after successive wins you wouldn’t think they are going to make any for this match. They do have Graham Hume waiting in the wings should they want to change their attack though.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets for the Sunday opener and the first one is a popular bet for us on this website as it comes in the form of the Wanindu Hasaranga performance. He covered it for us earlier in the competition and a line of 40.5 looks on the soft side for him here. These two sides played in this tournament last year and Hasaranga hit 71 from 47 balls. While he probably won’t face 47 balls in this match, it does show that if he comes into bat he’ll be able to knock some points off the total. He has taken three wickets in his last two matches and if he does that again here then he will have covered the line with the ball. I think there is plenty of potential for the over to land again here.
The other bet I like is for Ashen Bandara to be the top Sri Lanka batter in the match. He is the man expected to replace Pathum Nissanka at the top of the order and as such the 15/2 quotes on him to lead the scoring is simply way too big. We saw the Scotland opener top score against Ireland in the second match and while Brandon King didn’t open for West Indies, he was in pretty early in the innings. If Bandara can get past the initial Josh Little spell then there isn’t a lot to get in his way and at 15/2 I’ll pay to see just how many he can score on his return to the side.
Tips
Back W.Hasaranga’s Performance – Over 40.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back A.Bandara Top Sri Lanka Batter for a 1/10 stake at 8.50 with Betfred
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