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Cricket betting tips: England v Sri Lanka first Test preview and best bets for Old Trafford
England are back on Test duty at Old Trafford on Wednesday, where Sri Lanka are up against it according to Richard Mann.
Cricket betting tips: England v Sri Lanka
2pts Dinesh Chandimal top Sri Lanka first innings batsman at 6/1 (Star Sports)
2pts Joe Root to make a first innings century at 5/1 (Sky Bet)
1pt Jamie Smith to make a first innings century at 7/1 (Sky Bet)
Armed with a few quid and renewed vigour for the great game following victory for Oval Invincibles in the final of The Hundred on Sunday, attention quickly turns to Test cricket as England begin a three-Test series against Sri Lanka in Manchester on Wednesday.
Captain Ben Stokes will be absent for England, nursing a hamstring injury picked up in The Hundred, and Dan Lawrence replaces Zak Crawley at the top of the order as the latter recovers from a broken finger. Ollie Pope will lead the side for the first time.
Despite those enforced changes, this series has all the hallmarks of a mismatch. England are hot from a 3-0 series clean sweep over West Indies, while Sri Lanka warmed up with a humbling seven-wicket defeat to an inexperienced England Lions last week.
English conditions count against Sri Lanka
There is quality in the Sri Lanka batting line-up, and some familiar faces, but England’s pace attack got better and better throughout that series win over West Indies, and the variety the likes of Mark Wood, Chris Woakes and Gus Atkinson bring to the table should be too much for the tourists.
It's worth pointing that while Old Trafford is generally a good place to bat – Australia posted 317 here last summer before England replied with a mammoth 592 – Manchester has always offered the seamers pace and bounce, and reverse swing later in the game. The recent dry spell could mean reverse swing plays an even bigger role than usual, though the forecast for the week is more unsettled at this stage.
Regardless of the weather, Old Trafford will offer the bowlers conditions the Sri Lankans have historically struggled with: pace, bounce and the type of sideways movement you rarely escape from in England.
Dimuth Karunaratne is a solid opening batsman with a very good record, but regular readers of these pages will know I generally tend to avoid openers in Test matches in England, and my way into the top Sri Lanka first innings batsman market is through some experience in the middle order.
Count on experienced Chandimal
I really do think this is a market worth betting on, given I reckon so many in that line-up will be like fish out of water, so Angelo Mathews and DINESH CHANDIMAL look the pair to focus on.
Mathews has been a terrific servant and has two hundreds in England from only five Tests to confirm he has the class and temperament to succeed in these conditions. Runs in that warm-up match are another tick in his favour, though his last Test on these shores came way back in 2016, and at 37 years of age, I have my doubts as to whether he is quite the player he was.
Three years his junior, I’ll plump for Chandimal who appears at the peak of his powers rights now, averaging 102.71 in this format in 2022, 44.87 in 2023 and 36.80 from three matches in 2024, with a century and one fifty already.
I’ve always admired Chandimal’s fighting qualities and willingness to scrap for his runs, and Tom Blundell and Joshua Da Silva are other away wicket-keeper batsmen to have done well in England in recent years.
Chandimal has played four Tests in England already and while his record here isn’t anywhere near as strong as Mathews’, an average of 32.00 is by no means poor, and he compiled a brilliant century at Durham in 2016 when defying the likes of Woakes, James Anderson and Stuart Broad.
Furthermore, he has managed five half-centuries and averages 40.00 in New Zealand where the ball generally swings about, so he certainly appears to have the game to meet the challenges he will face in the coming weeks.
I have plenty of time for Dhananjaya de Silva and he is another from the middle order who could do well, but he’s always struck me as being a better player of spin than pace, so I prefer Chandimal at 6/1.
The England top batsman market remains a tricky puzzle to solve, especially for this series when it’s hard to envisage the Sri Lanka bowling having the teeth to hurt the hosts.
Red-hot Root can star again
Any of the usual suspects could oblige, so I’ll be backing both JOE ROOT and JAMIE SMITH to make first innings centuries.
The case for Root is rock solid. The Yorkshireman peeled off scores of 68, 14, 122 and 87 against West Indies when looking in terrific form, finally finding the perfect tempo to his batting under Bazball.
Root has kept busy by ticking over in The Hundred, but he is patently much happier in the longer format, and his record against Sri Lanka – averaging 58.88 from 10 matches with four centuries – is mightily impressive.
In fact, two of Root’s last four innings against Sri Lanka have yielded scores of 228 and 186, so the tourists could be forgiven for letting their heads drop if England’s number four gets himself in and set.
With Sky Bet offering 5/1 for Root to make a first innings century, we’ll be playing.
Smith is slightly bigger at 7/1, and I’ve long been a fan of the Surrey man who reminds me an awful lot of Kevin Pietersen in the way he can hit a good length ball off either front or back foot thanks to his long reach and ability to read length early. That makes him very difficult to bowl to.
Smith looked right at home when kicking off his Test career with 70, 36 and 95 against West Indies, and that maiden international century won’t be long in coming.
Smith certainly looks ideal for the crucial number seven spot, with his ability to change gears when batting with the tail something England have been looking for since Jonny Bairstow's returns began to drop off. That said, he could even bat at number six this week should England opt for the extra bowler in Stokes’ absence.
Either way, I’m expecting plenty more to come from Smith and he could take a liking to a Sri Lanka attack that might well be softened up by the time he enters the party.
Posted at 1355 BST on 19/08/24
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