Sri Lanka conclude their tour of Zimbabwe on Sunday when the two sides meet for the third and final time in the T20 format with the series on the line when the pair face off for a second consecutive day in Harare.
Zimbabwe ruthlessly levelled the series on Saturday so there is all to play for over the course of the 40 overs on Sunday, not just for this series but for confidence moving into the cricket that both teams have ahead of them.
Zimbabwe
They had been competitive for much of the Sri Lankan tour and finally Zimbabwe got over the line on Saturday and they will be hoping for a repeat of that in this deciding match on Sunday. There is a bigger picture here in that Zimbabwe will want to be fully prepared for the upcoming Africa qualifier for the T20 World Cup but if they can take down the scalp of a team like Sri Lanka on their way there then they certainly won’t shy away from that.
The bowlers were given the option of getting the job done on Saturday. That has been the strength of their side for a while so you would imagine that the home side will be keen to bowl first if given the chance here. You wouldn’t say that the run chase was massively convincing when chasing down a lot total but they got the job done and you would imagine they will take a lot of confidence from that as they go into this deciding match.
Sri Lanka
After two ODI wins and a win in the opening T20 match, although they weren’t massively convincing in any of those games, Sri Lanka will have been distraught by how they played in the second T20 on Saturday and will need to dust themselves down quickly and regroup and come again if they want to give themselves the best chance of winning the series. The good thing is that their opening win gave them two goes at getting the series done and here is the second of them.
It goes without saying that their batting is going to need to be a whole lot better than it was on Saturday and whether that involves personnel changes or just some stern words remains to be seen. To their credit though, even though they had nothing to defend and near enough no chance of winning, their bowlers didn’t just accept defeat on Saturday. They will need all of that spirit here and then hope that they are given a better score to defend.
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Team News
There is no reason to think that Zimbabwe are going to change their XI after such a convincing display and the margin of their victory. The only reason to switch things up is if they want to try something ahead of the qualifier for the World Cup next month.
You would think that Sri Lanka will make a change or two after such a heavy loss in the previous game. We still haven’t seen Maheesha Pathirana but that might change here given the short turnaround between games.
Betting
There is a case to be made for Zimbabwe to be a touch big in this match at around the 2/1 mark but whether they can back up a performance like that 24 hours later I have my doubts. If they could do that then they would be one of the better teams in this format of the game and quite clearly at this point they are not at that level. I certainly wouldn’t want to be betting on Sri Lanka after what we saw on Saturday so I’ll head to a different market for a bet here.
That comes in the form of the match runs where the line looks a little high at 323.5. There were only 164 runs here on Saturday and you wouldn’t think the square is going to play any easier here with this the second match on it in less than 24 hours by the time this game starts compared to when the last finished. Zimbabwe weren’t going at a run a ball when they reached their target on Saturday so the bowlers look to be getting the better of the batters now. I expect that to continue here so I’ll go under 323.5 runs in this one.
Tips
Back Under 323.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
