The last of the three matches to begin at the T20 World Cup on Friday does so in Dallas where Group D will be the centre of attention as Bangladesh get their tournament started when they go up against Sri Lanka.
With South Africa also in this group which always looked like a key match in the section and that is even more the case for Sri Lanka who took a beating at the hands of the Proteas in their opening game. Bangladesh can go a long way towards qualifying for the Super Eights with a win here.
Bangladesh
I think it is fair to say that Bangladesh have plenty to prove in this tournament. They had a dismal 50 over competition at the back end of last year and this has historically been the weaker of the two white ball formats for them. There is a case to be made that conditions aren’t terrible for them in this part of the world but a team who appear to be in transition need some new stars to come out and make themselves known if they are to push they way through to the next stage.
The conditions we’ve seen in this tournament so far might well allow Bangladesh to hold their own but if they are going to be any sort of force in the event then their batting is going to be the ones under the most scrutiny. There are a couple of experienced players in this side but the younger element need to show that they can handle the occasion and that they have the power to clear the ropes later in the innings when the scores need to made. If they can do that they’ll give themselves a chance.
Sri Lanka
It was a drastic start to the tournament for Sri Lanka when they were taken down by South Africa in emphatic style. The conditions in New York certainly played a part in that match but at the same time they didn’t exactly help themselves when you consider that they won the toss and chose to bat first on a ground that had barely been used before and which they had absolutely no knowledge of conditions. It felt like an obvious choice to bowl first but they decided against it and completely fluffed their lines.
It goes without saying that there needs to be a huge improvement for Sri Lanka, who given the margin of that loss in their opening game probably need to win their final three matches to have a chance of qualifying. Conditions are more predictable here in Dallas so I would expect there to be natural improvement but really they just need someone at the top of the innings to take responsibility and set it up. Sri Lanka are in the positive position that they don’t need massive scores to defend with the quality of their bowling attack.
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Team News
Bangladesh are expected to have Taskin Ahmed available for this match and that would be a real boost on a wicket which has pace and bounce in it. They might be without Shoriful Islam though who picked up a hand injury less than a week ago.
Sri Lanka are likely to make a change to their bowling attack for this one having got the balance of their unit completely wrong in the first game. Dushmantha Chameera is waiting in the wings for his first game of the tournament.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets for this match. The first of them is for Sri Lanka to hit more than 5.5 sixes. This ground in Dallas is nowhere near as big as the one that Sri Lanka played on in New York, as we’ve seen with Aaron Jones hitting 10 sixes on his own in a match where Canada hit eight sixes. Pakistan don’t have a big hitting side but they still hit nine sixes here on Thursday while even though Sri Lanka made an absolute pigs ear of their batting effort against South Africa in New York but they still hit three sixes in the match. The size of that defeat has already left Sri Lanka needing to repair their net run rate so I expect them to go after the bowling and on a ground where the ball has been flying nicely I think the 5.5 sixes line is well within range.
You sense if Bangladesh are going to do something in this tournament then the experience of Mahmudullah is going to be crucial with the bat. He has shown in World Cups in the past that he can handle pressure and pace an innings to the extent that he can flourish at the back end of it and that is exactly what we have seen the successful batters in this tournament do. The majority of the top scores in this tournament have come in the middle or lower order and I see no reason why that won’t continue here with the new ball likely to deck around a bit under lights. Mahmudullah is likely to bat at six and at 13/1 he feels like a big price in a batting unit which recently twice failed against USA and again against India, albeit in New York, in a warm up match last week where the 40 from Mahmudullah was enough to top score.
Tips
Back Sri Lanka – Over 5.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 1.95 with Betway
Back Mahmudullah Top Bangladesh Batter for a 1/10 stake at 14.00 with Betway
