Sri Lanka are five games into their tour of South Africa and have suffered four defeats. So it is not surprising that they will be slightly apprehensive about the third Twenty20 match at Cape Town on Wednesday.
South Africa are no better than 1.36 (Skybet) and Sri Lanka are 3.4 with Bet365. Is that value on the Lankans? Sure they were beaten in game one but next time out they were terrific.
The tourists whipped out the home team for just 113 with chinaman Lakshan Sandakan taking four wickets. It is telling that a mystery bowler managed to do so well.
This is a young, inexperienced South Africa team shorn of their household names. There is no Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock or Kagiso Rabada. In fact, it is a bit of a reserve side largely made up of those who have impressed in franchise cricket.
The reason for this could be Cricket South Africa’s desperation to give their fringe players a taste of the international arena. A spate of young, highly promising South Africans have left for England on Kolpak contracts – rendering them ineligible to play for their country – and there is a terror that the national side will suffer a damaging talent drain.
So there is not a huge amount to fear for Sri Lanka. JJ Smuts, Heino Kuhn, and Theunis de Bruyn are okay at domestic level while the only standout performer is AB De Villiers who has come back after injury. South Africa look like an average franchise team with one superstar to plug the gaps with this line-up and could be worth taking on.
Indeed, the Newlands ground has been a leveler in the past in limited-overs cricket under lights with a heavy bias in favour of the team batting first. The ball misbehaves under lights, bending this way and that. So far there have been only three T20 day-night affairs, however, and it is too soon to see if that will be repeated.
The major issue of siding with Sri Lanka is the loss of the talismanic Angelo Mathews. Mathews is their best player and was Sri Lanka’s top bat in the Test series. He also started well in the T20s proving that he had mastered the conditions.
But if one door closes, another opens. Without Mathews, the top Sri Lanka batsman market could be a free for all for this one. Hitters Hiroshan Dickwella and Kusal Mendis get 5 quotes from green listed bookmaker Bet365 by dint of their top-order positions. But our shout is for Dinesh Chandimal to come good.
He is underrated at 5.5 (Bet365) and is much stronger than his team-mates. Usually, the battle for honours is between him and Mathews. That’s out top wager.
A South Africa top-bat bet? Obviously, AB gets the billing at 3.25 (Boylesports, Ladbrokes). It is arguably he should be shorter so we won’t put you off taking a chunk. Farhaan Behardien is underrated at 7 (Ladbrokes).
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