There are two matches to look forward to in the ICC Cricket World Cup on Saturday and the earlier start comes from Cardiff where New Zealand clash with Sri Lanka.
New Zealand:
New Zealand come into the World Cup as one of the dark horses and pre-tournament they had been trading at around 10/1 to be crowned champions.
In their most recent series they completed a 3-0 clean sweep of Bangladesh in February, winning all 3 matches by wide margins. They also beat Sri Lanka 3-0 in another home series at the turn of the year but in between those faultless display’s they were thumped 4-1 at home by India.
In the warm ups New Zealand beat India by 6 wickets at The Oval but then lost to West Indies by 91 runs in Bristol.
New Zealand have never won the World Cup and their only appearance in the final came in 2015. They co-hosted that tournament with Australia who beat them by 7 wickets at the MCG in the final.
Squad: Kane Williamson (capt), Tom Blundell (wk), Trent Boult, Colin de Grandhomme, Lockie Ferguson, Martin Guptill, Matt Henry, Tom Latham (wk), Colin Munro, Jimmy Neesham, Henry Nicholls, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor
Sri Lanka:
Sri Lanka’s 50 over form in 2019 makes very uncomfortable reading and hence they have been trading at around 100/1 to win the tournament. After losing all 3 matches in New Zealand they moved on to South Africa where they were thrashed 5-0. They did beat minnows Scotland in May at the start of their World Cup preparations but in the warm up matches they were beaten by South Africa by 87 runs at this venue and by Australia by 5 wickets in Southampton.
Sri Lanka were crowned champions in 1996 when they beat Australia in the final in Pakistan. They have also finished as runners up twice, in West Indies in 2007 where they lost to Australia and to India in 2011 in Mumbai.
Squad: Dimuth Karunaratne (capt), Avishka Fernando, Suranga Lakmal, Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Jeevan Mendis, Kusal Mendis (wk), Kusal Perera (wk), Thisara Perera, Nuwan Pradeep, Dhananjaya de Silva, Milinda Siriwardana, Lahiru Thirimanne, Isuru Udana, Jeffrey Vandersay
Head to Head
The teams have met 98 times. New Zealand have won 48, Sri Lanka have won 41 with 1 tie and 8 no results.
The most recent series between the sides came in New Zealand in January this year and the Black Caps completed a 3-0 clean sweep with victory margins of 45 runs, 21 runs and 115 runs.
The Betting, Click here for all markets
New Zealand 2/7
Sri Lanka 22/10
Note prices quoted are correct at the time of publication but are subject to change.
Verdict:
Current form certainly points to New Zealand but we look outside of the match result for a betting interest. Trent Boult could be a real handful for batsmen in this tournament; he looks to be New Zealand’s main weapon with the ball and is our pick to be top bowler for his side.
Although they were well beaten by the Proteas in the warm up at this venue Sri Lanka do benefit from having experienced the conditions. The Sri Lankan skipper Dimuth Karunaratne made 87 in that game and whilst he will have to survive the new ball from the likes of Boult, we give him a speculative vote to top score for his team.
Suggested Bets:
Top New Zealand bowler Trent Boult at 28/10
Top Sri Lankan batsman Dimuth Karunaratne at 4/1
Note prices quoted are correct at the time of publication but are subject to change.
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