Two matches take place in the Cricket World Cup on Saturday and the earlier start sees Australia clash with Sri Lanka at Kennington Oval, London
Australia:
Australia chalked up a third victory of their tournament when they beat Pakistan by 41 runs at Taunton on Wednesday. Despite losing the toss and being asked to bat first Finch (86) and Warner put on 146 for the first wicket in just 22.1 overs. Warner went on to make 107 but the innings fell away somewhat, closing on 307 all out (49 overs) when a total of 350+ had looked likely.
Pat Cummins struck early and went on to return excellent figures of 3/33 and in a crucial period of the game Pakistan stumbled from 136/2 to 160/6. Pakistan stuck to the task with a number of cameos to keep them in contention but they came up short, all out for 266 with 4.2 overs remaining.
Earlier results saw Australia beat Afghanistan by 7 wickets and West Indies by 14 runs and their only loss so far came against India who’s bat first total of 352/2 at this venue last weekend proved to be 36 too many.
Australia are now trading at around 33/10 to win the tournament.
David Warner is leading run scorer for Australia with 255 runs, Aaron Finch and has made 190 and Steve Smith has 170. With the ball Cummins and Starc have both taken 9 wickets.
This was how Australia lined up against Pakistan on Wednesday.
David Warner, Aaron Finch (capt), Shaun Marsh, Steven Smith, Usman Khawaja, Glenn Maxwell, Alex Carey (wk), Nathan Coulter-Nile, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Kane Richardson
Sri Lanka:
Sri Lanka have suffered more than most with the recent rain. Their last 2 matches, against Pakistan and then Bangladesh have been washed out without a ball being bowled leaving them with a record of 1 win, 1 defeat and 2 “draws” for a total of 4 log points. Considering they have all the big guns in the tournament still to face the Sri Lankan’s now face a very tough task to reach the semi finals.
Sri Lanka remain rank outsiders to win the tournament at around 250/1.
In their first 2 matches Sri Lanka were crushed by 10 wickets against New Zealand before they came through a tricky looking contest against Afghanistan with a 34 run (DLS) victory at Cardiff
Kusal Perera is leading run scorer for Sri Lanka with 107 runs in the tournament so far and Dimuth Karunaratne has made 85. With the ball Nuwan Pradeep has taken 4 wickets and Malinga has 3.
This was how Sri Lanka lined up against Afghanistan the last time they took to the field.
Lahiru Thirimanne, Dimuth Karunaratne (capt), Kusal Perera (wk), Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Dhananjaya de Silva, Thisara Perera, Isuru Udana, Nuwan Pradeep, Suranga Lakmal, Lasith Malinga
Head to Head
The teams have met 96 times with Australia winning 60, Sri Lanka have won 32 with 4 no results,
The teams haven’t met since 2016 when Australia won a 5 match series in Sri Lanka 4-1. .
The Betting, Click here for all markets
Australia 1/7
Sri Lanka 5/1
Note prices quoted are correct at the time of publication but are subject to change.
Verdict:
Current form suggests this should be straight forward for Australia although they weren’t always convincing against Pakistan last time out and Sri Lanka are battling to stay in contention for a semi final place.
One man that hasn’t really come to the party for Australia to date is Glenn Maxwell but he was in terrific form prior to the tournament. Maxwell should bat high enough to have the opportunity to make runs, quite possibly at the death. He is also an excellent fielder and might get a few overs with the ball so with 1 point awarded per run, 20 points per wicket and 10 points per catch we fancy he beat this current quote.
Suggested Bets:
Player Performances, Gj Maxwell Over 42.5 at 9/10
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