England v Sri Lanka: Three best bets for the 1st ODI clash
Published:England’s T20 defeat to Sri Lanka may not have been the start Peter Moores was looking for in his second stint as head coach but there was far better news for Ladbrokes News followers with all three of our best bets coming in.
And with the two sides back in action at the Oval tomorrow in the 50-over format of the game we have put together another trio of top tips covering tomorrow’s action in south London.
The tourists, who are T20 world champions, were underestimated when the sides clashed in the 20-over format the other night and we feel they are being over looked again in the one-day rules.
Angelo Matthews’ side are the ranked third in the ICC ODI rankings and with the likes of Lasith Malinga, Ajantha Mendis and Sachithra Senanayake in their bowling attack they cannot be taken lightly.
And with their batting line-up strengthened by the return of Sri Lankan legends Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakarra, the visitors could prosper against an England side, who are in transition.
With England’s opening pair of Alastair Cook and Ian Bell a touch on the conservative side back Sri Lanka to come out on top with a higher score from the first 15 overs.
Both Tillakaratne Dilshan (85.70) and Mathurage Perrara (83.55) are both attacking players have higher strike rates than that of Cook (78.77) and Bell (75.58) and if Dilshan produces some early fireworks this will be a one-way contest.
Despite England’s poor showing over the winter Alastair Cook has been backed as England’s leader in both the ODI and Test match formats.
The Essex opener will be desperate to make to lead from the front at the Oval and with scores of over 30 in his last four ODI innings he has shown some signs of form in this format of the game.
On top of that the left-hander has been in the runs in all formats of the game this season and he has also experienced success against the Sri Lankans in a warm-up game at Chelmsford.
Cook fired a brisk 71 against the Sri Lankan attack and we are backing him for a repeat performance to win Ladbrokes’ batsman handicap market at 7/1.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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