England v Sri Lanka T20I preview and free betting tips: Kusal Perera and Dawid Malan to sizzle in Southampton
England and Sri Lanka conclude their T20I series in Southampton on Saturday afternoon - check out Richard Mann's betting preview below.
Cricket betting tips: England v Sri Lanka T20I, June 26
2pts Kusal Perera top Sri Lanka batsman at 7/2 (General)
Pre-series predictions have proven bang on the money as England’s powerhouse T20 outfit head to Southampton for the third and final match with an unassailable 2-0 lead over Sri Lanka and the series already wrapped up.
Sri Lanka, as expected, have ultimately been outclassed, outmatched and overpowered in two largely one-sided affairs, and all that remains is for the tourists to try and glean some pride from Saturday afternoon’s finale and England to apply more fine tuning to their well-oiled, white-ball machine.
Jos Buttler was a 7/1 winner for these pages when claiming Man of the Match honours in the series opener, but not even his absence through injury on Thursday – which now extends to Saturday – could help Sri Lanka as the likes of Liam Livingstone and Sam Billings made use of rare opportunities to impress after Mark Wood had sizzled in a brilliant display of fast bowling earlier in the night.
Some time in the middle for Eoin Morgan wouldn’t go amiss, though perhaps Dawid Malan finds himself under more pressure following a couple of low scores that come on the back of some speculation over his position in the side at number three.
Whether that is playing on Malan’s mind – or he is just enduring a rare dip in form in an otherwise exemplary T20I career – remains to be seen, but he’ll be keen to sign off from the series with a score, not least because he now finds himself in the running for a recall to the Test team for the upcoming series against India.
I have absolutely no doubts about Malan and under normal circumstances, with Buttler absent, I’d be advising a 2pt bet on him at 9/2 for top England batsman honours. From 26 matches, Malan still averages 46.09 in this format and given that fine record, he is patently still underrated by the layers.
The issue in this series is that if Sri Lanka were to bat first again, England might only be chasing a modest total and Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow could easily make light work of that and leave Malan backers with a losing slip after no real run for their money.
My advice would be to try and back Malan at 4/1 or bigger should England happen to bat first, or play overs on his runs line if England bat second but Malan comes to the crease with a sizeable total to chase down.
Having struggled for his very best in the T20 series against India in the winter, Malan finished it with a classy 68 to remind everyone of his capabilities, before playing well in two subsequent ODIs, and don’t be surprised if the Yorkshire batsman repeats the dose on Saturday.
Having talked up Nuwan Pradeep in my series preview, I still think Sri Lanka might have missed a trick in omitting him from Thursday’s clash, given his experience and proficiency at the death.
Still, I’ll be surprised if he earns a recall so quickly and even so, KUSAL PERERA rates a better proposition in the top Sri Lanka batsman market at 7/2.
Though better known for his brilliant second-innings 153 that led Sri Lanka to a famous Test victory over South Africa in Durban in 2019, Perera has always boasted stronger white-ball credentials with his all-action style making this pugnacious operator a joy to watch when on song.
Furthermore, he is plainly the class act in this poor Sri Lankan batting line-up and though failing to build on a couple of promising starts (30 and 21) in the series so far, he doesn’t look far away and really must be backed at 7/2 in such a moderate field.
Kusal Mendis – who top-scored with 39 on Thursday – is the obvious danger, but he doesn’t look a natural fit in this form of the game and a purring Perera would always have too many guns for his more limited teammate.
The usual questions about the burden of captaincy on a so far unsuccessful tour might put potential supporters off, but Perera blasted a fabulous 120 in an ODI against Bangladesh as recently at late-May, and while I’m usually loathe to bet anyone on the basis they are ‘due’, Perera has shown more than enough in the last few days to suggest another big score isn’t far away.
Posted at 1455 BST on 25/06/21
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