Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh Prediction: 6/1 and 13/2 shots worth backing

It’s Sri Lanka v Bangladesh on Saturday, June 8 (01:30, Sky Sports Cricket) at Dallas, where the wicket has been the talk of many a town.

James Pacheco has two veterans on board to star with bat and bat respectively at 6/1 and 13/2 so let’s see if one, or both, come good in his Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh Predictions...

Sri Lanka

Yes, it was a horrible wicket to bat on in New York, yes Anrich Nortje was bowling rockets and yes, South Africa’s fielding was excellent. But still.

To be rolled over for 77 and not even see out the full 20 overs was just criminal. That Kusal Mendis top-scored with 19 off 30 tells its own story.

At least they made a decent fist of defending that paltry total, taking four wickets in the process with skipper Hasaranga the pick of the bowlers with 2-22 off his 3.2 overs. Another 35 runs on the board on such a challenging wicket and it may have been a different story. But they’ll need to seriously improve either way.

Possible XI: Kusal Mendis, Nissanka, Kamindu Mendis, Samawickrama, Hasaranga, Asalanka, Matthews, Shanaka, Theekshana, Pathirana, Thushara.

Bangladesh

This is Bangladesh’s opening match so there’s no recent form in this tournament to speak of.

Then again, we sort of know what to expect from them.

Much will depend on the form that ex-skipper Shakib Al-Hasan is in or to put it another way, what sort of mood he’s in. Literally.

Pace bowler Mustafizur Rahman is generally pretty reliable though, while Mahmudullah has seen it all before as the second all-rounder and Litton Das is dangerous on his day. But it rarely all clicks together and if any side is capable of a rotten performance, it’s them.

Possible XI: Hasan, Sarkar, Das, Shanto, Hridoy, Shakib, Mahmudullah, Rishad Hossain, Hasan, Ali, Mustafizur.

Pitch and conditions

So far in Dallas we’ve had a high-scoring affair in USA v Canada, a low-scoring one in Nepal v Netherlands and one somewhere in between with USA v Pakistan.

The somewhat obvious conclusion is that the latter may be the best indicator of a surface where 160 is around par but we’d need a far bigger sample supply to draw too many conclusions.

With little or no idea of what score to target batting first, both skippers will probably want to chase and let the opposition worry about that.

Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh Odds

*Please click on the link above to be taken to the main Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh T20 World Cup market page on betfred.com (or app) for all the live betting prices on this match.

It’s one thing being a decent side with two or three match-winners and having a bad day at the office; but it’s quite another being a generally chaotic side who can implode from any position.

Sri Lanka are the former, Bangladesh the latter. The odds-compilers are wise to that, which is why Hasaranga’s men are 4/9 favourites. That will be too short a price for many, but you don’t want to be backing the Tigers either, do you?

Your best bet is to hope Bangladesh bat first, get off to a good start and hope Sri Lanka reach about 5/6 in Live Betting.

Sri Lanka Top Bowler

Hasaranga is the man to beat. Fresh from winning this betting heat last time out, he’s a fair 5/2 to go back-to-back. As far as favourites go, he’s one of the more justified ones.

The fly in the ointment Hasaranga-wise is the pitch at Dallas. It’s favoured the seamers and those taking pace off the ball, looking to exploit a two-paced wicket.

So, step forward Angelo Matthews, the 37-year-old with over 200 T20 appearances to his name and one shy of 100 wickets. He actually opened the bowling against South Africa with his medium-pace -at-the-stumps style of bowling, and was very economical, albeit wicketless in that one.

With Sri Lanka likely to play four frontline bowlers and two all-rounders, he’s likely to get a fair crack of the whip and bowl three overs, maybe all four. 6/1 is good enough.

Bangladesh Top Batsman

If brainless shots don’t do for Bangladesh’s top order, then the pitch might. All of Ireland, Nepal and even Pakistan were guilty of losing early wickets, which brings the middle-order batsmen into play.

So, it may require a rescue job from the calm, composed head of Mahmudullah to keep his cool and bat sensibly.

The downside is he’ll bat at six or seven, so if the Tigers’ top order doesn’t fold like a pack of cards, he might not get much of a chance. The upside is he’s 13/2 so you only need one of these to come off every so often.

Jamie Pacheco predominantly covers Cricket for us at Betfred Insights. You can check out his Cricket Betting Tips, along with those from the rest of the team, at our Cricket hub page...