Australia and Sri Lanka contest Thursday's headline T20 World Cup match in Dubai, both sides made winning starts and the Aussies are a short price to go in again.
Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
Australia
Australia beat South Africa by 5 wickets in their opening match of the tournament. They won the toss, opted to bowl first and then restricted the Proteas to just 188/9 with Hazlewood's figures of 2/19 from his 4 overs earning the Man of the Match award. Zampa and Starc also claimed 2 wickets a piece.
The Australian run chase was less impressive than their bowling and they eventually got home with just 2 balls to spare. Steve Smith's 35 was the top score, an innings which helped them recover from 38/3 and Stoinis (24) and Wade (15)) saw them over the line.
Australian were a pre-tournament price of 7/1 to win the tournament and they are now trading at around 4/1.
This is how they lined up against the Proteas on Saturday.
Aaron Finch (c), David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Steven Smith, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade (wk), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
Sri Lanka
After coming through the qualifiers with a 100% record Sri Lanka came up against Bangladesh in their opening match in Sharjah on Sunday and they came out on top by 5 wickets. Bangladesh posted 171/4 in their 20 overs with Karunaratne (1/12 from 3 overs) faring the best of 7 bowlers used.
Although Kusal Perera lasted just 4 deliveries of the chase Asalanka (80 and Man of the Match) and Bhanuka Rajapaksa (53) were largely responsible for seeing Sri Lanka get home in 18.5 overs.
In the outright betting Sri Lanka are trading at around 16/1.
This was how Sri Lanka lined up in their opening game.
Kusal Perera (wk), Pathum Nissanka, Charith Asalanka, Avishka Fernando, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Dasun Shanaka (c), Wanindu Hasaranga, Chamika Karunaratne, Dushmantha Chameera, Binura Fernando, Lahiru Kumara
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Head to Head
Overall the teams have met 16 times with Australia winning 8 and Sri Lanka also winning 8.
The most recent meetings came in Australia late in 2019 and the Aussies completed a 3-0 clean sweep of the series.
The Betting
Australia are currently trading at around 4/10 to win the game and Sri Lanka can be backed at around 18/10
Australia are 8/10 to hit the most sixes with Sri Lanka 14/10 and a tie at 5/1.
Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
The Verdict
Conditions in Dubai could well be more difficult for batting than Sri Lanka experienced in Sharjah at the weekend where they were reliant on 3 individuals performing right at the top of their game and the bulk of their bowlers struggled.
I can see at least 1 Sri Lankan batsman failing to score and their first wicket falling with less than 20 runs on the board..
Bets: Sri Lanka total ducks over 0.5 at 9/10
Sri Lanka runs at fall of first wicket under 19.5 at 0.83/1
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Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
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