West Indies drew first blood in the ODI series with Sri Lanka on Wednesday and when the two sides reconvene at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua for the second game of the three on Friday, the hosts will be looking to secure the series.
Sri Lanka have been here before on this tour having dropped the opening T20 match before hitting back strongly and if they are to take this series to a decider like they did that one then this is a match they simply have to win. As well as the series being on the line here, valuable World Cup Super Series points are up for grabs too so this is an important game.
West Indies
The West Indies side cruised to victory in the opening match when in truth they were probably just a little bit too smart for their opponents. They weren’t brilliant with the new ball but when the spinners and medium pacers came on midway through the innings they seized control and you got the feeling that they were not in a mood to let a pretty strong bowling performance and fielding display count for nothing.
It was a very measured approach to the run chase. They could afford that luxury because they weren’t chasing the biggest total going around but it was still impressive because in a lot of ways that theory goes against their natural way of playing cricket. If West Indies can continue to be pragmatic when they need to but combine that with those moments of brutality either with power hitting or extreme pace, they could yet become a good 50 over side again.
Sri Lanka
I would imagine the Sri Lankans will be feeling pretty hard done by after that opening match. I say that because their batting innings was going along swimmingly until an absolutely terrible decision to give Danushka Gunathilaka out obstructing the field. Understandably their innings went pear-shaped from there on in although the tourists didn’t always help themselves with some shoddy running and getting bogged down at the wrong time.
To be fair to their bowlers they were up against it from the start on a pitch which was much better than the total which Sri Lanka posted, but to their credit they toiled away but just couldn’t maintain enough pressure to bring about the natural fall of wickets. They took the innings as deep as they could but they lacked the firepower needed on a flat pitch to open up an end. That is something they will need to find for this match.
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Team News
You would think with the series on the line and World Cup qualifying points up for grabs that West Indies will be reluctant to change a winning side, especially one which won so well. That might wait until they hopefully have the series won.
Sri Lanka are likely to look to add more depth to their batting just to give them more stability but they have not been helped in that quest by Angelo Mathews leaving the tour for a personal reason. Niroshan Dickwella could be his replacement.
Betting
I’m expecting a decent battle in this second one, one which I think will be a little higher scoring than the first match was. There are a few reasons why I think that will be the case. The first of them is that both teams have been able to sound each other out and work out a few things. Another reason is that I would be surprised if Sri Lanka run as badly as they did in the previous game and more importantly you’d like to think a good looking innings won’t be cut off in its prime this time. I also think Sri Lanka will add more batting depth for better balance.
The runs line for this one sits at 485.5 which is pretty low by modern standards on a square where the pitch on Wednesday played very well. We saw in the West Indies innings that they should have no problem closing in on 300 if they bat first and I think Sri Lanka would have got a lot more than they ended with but for that horrible decision. I expect both sides to be looking at 250 as a minimum score here so the over appeals on that runs line.
Tips
WON – Back Over 485.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Betway
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