Cricket: England vs Sri Lanka Test Series

[kevshat]

One of the more anticipated English international summers gets underway on Thursday as we host Sri Lanka in a three match test series in the build up to the India series later in the summer. Sri Lanka are high up in the world rankings themselves and should provide good opposition over the next month. As always every ball is live on Sky. Schedule:

Thu May 26 - Mon May 30 10:00 GMT | 11:00 local 11:00 BST	1st Test - England v Sri Lanka Sophia Gardens, Cardiff	10 - 15° C
Fri Jun 3 - Tue Jun 7 10:00 GMT | 11:00 local 11:00 BST	2nd Test - England v Sri Lanka Lord's, London	N/A

Thu Jun 16 - Mon Jun 20 10:00 GMT | 11:00 local 11:00 BST

3rd Test - England v Sri Lanka The Rose Bowl, Southampton

N/A

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: England vs Sri Lanka Test Series 3 series bets for me. 1pt Series Correct Score - 0-0 20/1 Skybet I think the 0-0 is a real runner here. The three venues for this series are Cardiff, Lords and The Rose Bowl which massively assists the 0-0 as does the two line up's. Sri Lanka are obviously coming into their first series without Malinga and Murali who will be big holes to fill and their attack doesn't look all that threatening to me on flat wickets. England have the better bowling attack but the Sri Lanka batting line up is very deep and full of quality so bowling them out won't be easy at all. If the weather stays as it is then the seamers are unlikely to get much in the way of swing whereas Sri Lanka play spin well which could nullify Swann. In the only test played at Cardiff so far 435 played 674/6d and I don't expect any different this week. I think the batsmen dominate there. There has barely been a result all season at The Rose Bowl and in their first ever test match they are going to make sure the wicket is good and day I say it ensure the match goes into a 5th day to line the coffers. So then it comes down to Lord's. Without a doubt the strongest chance of a result but by no means a certain result. If there's no cloud cover then the bowlers could find it tough going there. England struggled at times to bowl Bangladesh out at HQ last summer and I wouldn't want to put my life savings on Sri Lanka taking 20 wickets in any match in this series. Any rain around would hurt chances of a result in all three matches such is the strength of the batting so at 20/1 I'll have a small poke on a 0-0 draw. 1pt ew I.Bell Top England Batsman 6/1 Ladbrokes (1/4 1,2,3) Ian Bell was in good form for Warwickshire in the county season and that comes off the back of a good world cup for one of England's best batsmen. There's a lot of competition in this field with Strauss already hitting a ton against the tourists this summer and Alastair Cook notching up over 400 runs for Essex but Trott wasn't in brilliant nick for Warwickshire and the doubts continue to surround Kevin Pietersen at this level so there's definitely a spot in the top three up for grabs. Where Bell has an advantage over Strauss and Cook is he plays spin better than both of them and I expect Sri Lanka to resort to a lot of spin from Herath, Dilshan and maybe even Mendis too. 6/1 looks a tasty price especially with the each way terms in play too so I'll go for one of my favourite batsmen to watch in Ian Bell. 1pt ew T.Paranavitana Top Sri Lanka Batsman 6/1 Ladbrokes (1/4 1,2,3) Normally in this market the focus would be on two men. Or three if we include Dilshan. However I like the look of Tharanga Paranavitana. He's been in excellent form on tour so far with tons in both warm up matches and that was a very good attack England put out in the Lions match so his ton in that was no flash in the pan. What I like about him over the likes of Sangakkara, Jayawardene and to an extent Dilshan is they've all come from a month of 20 over cricket so might take a knock or so to get test match rhythm back. Dilshan always offers bowlers chances with his flamboyant attacking style anyway. Obviously opening is another benefit he has on the main two if Sri Lanka have a shortened innings or something. The left handed opener already has two test tons to his name so he's in good nick and again with the each way terms on offer 6/1 is a big price and one which could well look very big when play concludes at The Rose Bowl next month.

[Tyler]

Re: Cricket: England vs Sri Lanka Test Series The glut of limited overs cricket is finally drawing to a close and the Test summer is finally here. Annoyingly though there is plenty of rain forecast for the 1st Test which makes watching and betting a bit of a pain. I underestimate them at my peril but even the most optimistic side of met thinks this horribly inexperienced Sri Lankan bowling attack will suffer in England quite a bit. England should win the series but I am not going to even think of getting on them at 1.44. Not going too crazy on outrights either as I think anyone in the Top 4 on both sides can take the series runscorer odds and the correct score markets also seem abit of a bad idea with the 1st test looking increasingly like a draw. Therefore, leaving the outrights and going with one for the 1st Test: - 6pts Player Performance: Ian Bell 63&Over @ 9/10 [Cricketbetlive] The track here at Cardiff is a belter. The only ever Test Match to be played here in '09 was a very high-scoring draw between England and Aus. Every England batsman ran up scores of double-figures whilst Simon Katich, Ricky Ponting, Marcus North and Brad Haddin all made centuries. With Michael Clarke getting 83 to go with that. I expect the one we will see in the next five days to be very similar and that will play beautifully into Englands hands. I've always been a fan of Bell and I think given the fact that we have a cracking pitch here against an inexperienced side wielding the cherry, I reckon he can go well. Without Malinga and Murali the English lot can thrive. Bell plays spin better than most too so he should be able to put away Mendis, Herath and maybe Dilshan with comfort so a score of 63 isn't out of the question. The only international match he batted in here was an ODI against the Indians. He scored 88. Happy to be on overs here factoring in all the above.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: England vs Sri Lanka Test Series 4 for me in the opener although only one is a main bet. 4pts T.Dilshan's Performance pts - 92&Over 5/6 Bet365 Points are scored as follows: 1pt per run, 10pts per catch & 20pts per wicket. Tillekeratne Dilshan now leads this Sri Lanka side and the extra responsibility I believe will make him a stronger point scoring proposition. He may rein in a few of the expansive shots and more importantly he's likely to bowl a few more overs than he normally would, something that could be important on a ground where Glamorgan offen play two spinners. He's always a good fielder so catching bonuses is always a possibility but when push comes to shove he'll score most of his points with the bat and he's in decent nick with the bat. We saw him wallop this England bowling attack minus Broad all around Sri Lanka 6 weeks ago and he's scored two tons in two matches on this tour to date. Ok you would expect him to go big against a weakened Middlesex side on the featherbed at Uxbridge but against a very good England Lions attack on a Derby wicket not associated with easy batting is no mean effort. On this good batting track I expect him to take out a big chunk of points with the bat and then topple over the line with ball and hands. 2pts England 1st Inns 500+ Runs 11/4 Blue Square I think these are fair odds for England to make 500 here. The Lions have just hit this Sri Lankan attack for 493/8d on a tricky wicket at Derby and so with the main men batting for England against a technically weaker attack as I know Stuart Law really rates Nuwan Pradeep, I think it's not beyond the realms of possibility that the first team notch up 500. This wicket will be flat to begin with, I'm sure of that. Not just to get the match into Monday but also to get more international cricket. Almost all of England's top order have scored runs with their counties so the majority of them are in good nick and can feast on this weak Sri Lanka bowling attack. Surrey have already scored 575 on this wicket this season and Glamorgan put Kent for over 400 as well. This batting line up is better than both of them so 500 is on. 0.5pts ew F.Maharoof Top Sri Lanka Batsman (1st Inns Only) 33/1 Coral (1/5 1,2,3) Farveez Maharoof has spent the last two months batting in English conditions and averaging 65.33 with the bat for Lancashire, scoring a ton in that time against Somerset so arguably he could be the best prepared of all the Sri Lankan's here. Granted he's only a lower order batsman but he's definitely one who can bat. We've seen that at this level in the past as he has 3 test half centuries. We've seen in past Sri Lanka matches the likes of Malinga and Herath go well down the order with the bat so having faced a lot of the England bowlers this summer already I'll take Maharoof to stick in a decent knock at a very attractive price. 1pt E.Morgan Man of the Match 20/1 Bet365 Bit of a lottery market this but the price looks a bit big considering Morgan hit 193 against this same Sri Lankan side over the weekend. He plays spin so well and he's so flamboyant with his shot making that he'll appeal to any MOM adjudicator so long as he scores a few runs. In good nick and determined to do well to nail the place in the side down should lead Morgan to performing well here so I'll chuck a point at him to see just how well.

[Tyler]

Re: Cricket: England vs Sri Lanka Test Series

WIN - 6pts Player Performance: Ian Bell 63&Over @ 9/10 [Cricketbetlive]

A pretty drab 1st Test is heading its way to a draw here but a good innings from Ian Bell has brought this in easy peasy. +5.40 to start with in this series.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: England vs Sri Lanka Test Series Good work Tyler. As day's go that was pretty frustrating with Strauss pulling out 4 short of 500 and Dilshan 12 short of a performance which looked fine on day 1 before the 4 days of weather got involved. Then to top it off Sri Lanka collapse to end the 0-0 CS which was a real runner because Sri Lanka aren't taking 20 wickets in the series with this attack let alone in a single test match. One of those days where I've done nothing wrong but nothing has gone right :wall:wall. -8 for the match and -1 for the CS so -9 overall.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: England vs Sri Lanka Test Series Getting these two in relatively early because the prices will go I'm sure. Will come back with any others I have for the 2nd test later on. 4pts Any batsman to score a century on Day 1 Evs Sportingbet I like the look of this bet. In Cardiff there were four first innings centurions and had play got underway on time I would imagine someone like Dilshan would've gone on to make a century because we wouldn't have seen Swann so early. Both sides have batting line up's full of players who can score a ton on the opening day. Realistically it's going to come from someone in the top 4 so we've got Strauss on his home ground, Cook who's off his tits at the minute, Trott who churns out runs at the same rate Kelloggs dish out corn flakes and Pietersen who is due along with Dilshan and Paranavitana who have two tons on the tour already and Sangakkara and Jayawardene who are the classiest batsmen in the world game, both of whom can score big at any time. Conditions are forecast to be perfect for batting and I very much think someone will be raising their bat to the crowd to signify their century on the opening day. 6pts England's 1st Inns Runs - 500 or more 9/4 Blue Square The weather fcuked this bet up in Cardiff when 500 was an absolute certainty before the declaration was forced on 496 but there's no weather around to mess us up here at Lord's. This Sri Lankan attack is so weak that I fully expect England to fill their boots again in this test match. Ok there's talk that they might bring Dilhara Fernando back into the side but he's nothing special. England put up 440 against a much stronger Pakistan attack here last year albeit in the match the Pakistani bowlers we playing hopscotch down the wicket and we put up over 500 last time we played Sri Lanka here, a Sri Lanka attack which contained Murali and Vaas so was infinitely better than the shambles they've turned up to this tour with. All of England's top 7 with the exception of Pietersen are in good nick and with the good weather of recent weeks I don't expect Mick Hunt to prepare a dodgy wicket. Middlesex have already scored over 400 here in a first innings and I'm confident England will better their effort by 100 at least and clear 500 in their 1st innings.

[fishy25]

Re: Cricket: England vs Sri Lanka Test Series I'm not getting involved in the individual match bets but I have taken one outright for the series after the first match. Jonathan Trott top England series batsman- 6/5 Sportingbet- (5/10) Surprised to see this offered at above evens as opposed to odds on. Trott has been England's most consistent batsman for some time now and we all know that he's the kind of guy who loves to bat and pile on the runs, and when in form, he seems to have a habbit of staying in form. He was recently named England's cricketer of the year showing how much he is valued in this current team who can beat any test team in the world. There's nothing in this Sri Lanka bowling attack for the England batsman to worry about and in the next couple of tests I expect at least 3 of the top 6 to hit centuries and pile the misery on for the Sri Lankan bowlers. The race for the top England batsman is basically down to Trott and Cook in my opinion, unless Strauss, Bell or Pietersen score a double hundred or something but that's unlikely so think we can narrow it down to Cook and Trott. Essentially Trott has a 70 run handicap over Cook, with 2 to play so the Essex man will have to score decent runs in all 4 innings in my opinion. Despite hitting a century at Cardiff, there were a couple of instances towards the start where he played and missed and on another day he could have easily got a nick to. I expect Trott to hit at least one more century in the series. If he gets to 30 or 40, he's a hard man to dismiss so I'm going to back Wawickshire man to lead the run charts come the end of the 3 match series.

[PerryPFC]

Re: Cricket: England vs Sri Lanka Test Series Cook out for 96. Another kick, shatman! Unlucky mate.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: England vs Sri Lanka Test Series Yeah the bad luck I've had in this series so far has been unbelievable :eek. Anyway I think England look a big price to me. 3pts England to win 2nd Test 7/2 Boylesports England are a big price here. There's still 270 overs left in the test match and England go into day 3 of the match with a 255 run lead. That's a big lead. It means Sri Lanka are going to have to bat out the best part of another day just to regain level terms with England which is still a big ask even though they batted so well on Saturday. Sri Lanka could well have doubts over their captain Dilshan who copped one on the thumb on Saturday and has gone off to hospital for X-rays on it. With a night away from the crease it could easily swell up. England bowled poorly on Saturday but often in this era when England have had a bad day they've bounced back in style the next day and I think they can do that here. There's due to be a few more clouds around on Sunday which will help England's bowling. With the hot weather which is set to continue throughout the match the wicket will get drier and I'm sure it will turn which will bring Swann into the game. I don't think this wicket will be the best to bat on come the end of day 4 and day 5 so with so much time left in the game, so soon after winning a game with no time left in it, I'll take England to wrap the series up with a Lord's win in the next 3 days.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: England vs Sri Lanka Test Series Don't think I've ever been as unlucky in a series as I have in this one. -22 after the first two tests but being within 4 runs of two chunky bets is annoying. Anyway maybe the luck turned with Dilshan struggling for the final test. Paranavitana would need 78 to overtake him if he is ruled out and with the keeper Jayawardene the only one close enough to him to matter there's every chance that top bat can come in. Anyway I'm hitting one for the final test early because this price will die in the next 3 days. 6pts 3rd Test - Draw 6/4 Skybet I thought all along that this test would be a draw with Hampshire aiming to get the full 5 days money out of the wicket and both sides having sufficiently better batting line ups than they have bowling attacks but now we've got an extra dimension. A sizeable band of low pressure if hovering over the South for the first three days of this match and I can't believe we're not going to lose overs in this game. We lose overs anyway because the Sri Lankans don't seem to be able to bowl more than 12 overs an hour but for the purpose of this bet and this match I'll let them off of that. Jimmy Anderson looks like he'll replace Steven Finn in a move I don't agree with, I'd drop Broad but England are the way they are. Anderson will be coming back from injury without competitive cricket after his twenty20 match was called off on Sunday. He never looked totally on song at Cardiff anyway so I don't see him being his brilliant best here. Tremlett would be a danger but he can't do it all on his own. The wickets at the Rose Bowl have been fantastic for batting all season and I can't see this differing in any way. Sri Lanka's bowling attack wouldn't take 20 wickets in a test if a test match lasted 5 months let alone 5 days and England haven't been helped any by Essex playing Sangakkara into form over the weekend. Rain, flat deck, poor bowling attacks and strong batting line up's should all equal a draw at a very tasty price compared to what it will be when the coin goes up on Thursday.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: England vs Sri Lanka Test Series Glad I took the draw when I did as it's into a best price of 4/5 now. 2 more for the match to begin with. Avoiding performances this week with the weather a questionable element. 5pts I.Bell (-2.5 runs) to beat T.Samaraweera (1st Inns Only) 5/6 Ladbrokes No idea where this handicap has come from. I'd take out the decimal point :loon. Ian Bell is in sumptuous form right now with a ton and a pair of 50's in this series so far backing up a breakthrough Ashes series for the Warwickshire man. Thilan Samaraweera's record in England is crap. If we keep it strictly to England it's pathetic but a 58 in Wales at the beginning of this series rose his average to 14.42 runs per test innings in England and Wales. The second innings at Lords was the only other time in four tests that he's made double figures in an innings. As good and as classy a batsman as Samaraweera undoubtedly is, he isn't here. He's woeful. Bell averages 48.50 in England and only twice since the start of the 2009 Ashes series has he not scored at least 50 in the first innings of a test match in England. Bell is far more happier in these conditions, he faces easily the weaker of the two attacks and I see him beating Samaraweera by a lot more than 3 runs first time around. 4pts A.Cook First Innings 50 5/4 Stan James No brainer this one. Is there a better batsman in world cricket right now than the Chef? If there is I've not seen him. This boy is churning out runs like pints of milk on his farm. Crazy scoring. In this series he's scored 133, 96 and 106 and in fact in every match in the Ashes in the winter he scored a fifty in the first innings apart from Perth where England barely scored 50. We can rest safe in the knowledge that this Rose Bowl wicket isn't Perth like and neither is the Sri Lankan attack as good as the Australian one, and let's face it that attack was crap which goes to show how awful this SL one is. Cook is well on his way to becoming the most successful England batsman in history and he can continue on his merry run scoring path with at least 50 more in his first knock in this test match.

[PerryPFC]

Re: Cricket: England vs Sri Lanka Test Series

Don't think I've ever been as unlucky in a series as I have in this one. -22 after the first two tests but being within 4 runs of two chunky bets is annoying. Anyway maybe the luck turned with Dilshan struggling for the final test. Paranavitana would need 78 to overtake him if he is ruled out and with the keeper Jayawardene the only one close enough to him to matter there's every chance that top bat can come in. Anyway I'm hitting one for the final test early because this price will die in the next 3 days. 6pts 3rd Test - Draw 6/4 Skybet I thought all along that this test would be a draw with Hampshire aiming to get the full 5 days money out of the wicket and both sides having sufficiently better batting line ups than they have bowling attacks but now we've got an extra dimension. A sizeable band of low pressure if hovering over the South for the first three days of this match and I can't believe we're not going to lose overs in this game. We lose overs anyway because the Sri Lankans don't seem to be able to bowl more than 12 overs an hour but for the purpose of this bet and this match I'll let them off of that. Jimmy Anderson looks like he'll replace Steven Finn in a move I don't agree with, I'd drop Broad but England are the way they are. Anderson will be coming back from injury without competitive cricket after his twenty20 match was called off on Sunday. He never looked totally on song at Cardiff anyway so I don't see him being his brilliant best here. Tremlett would be a danger but he can't do it all on his own. The wickets at the Rose Bowl have been fantastic for batting all season and I can't see this differing in any way. Sri Lanka's bowling attack wouldn't take 20 wickets in a test if a test match lasted 5 months let alone 5 days and England haven't been helped any by Essex playing Sangakkara into form over the weekend. Rain, flat deck, poor bowling attacks and strong batting line up's should all equal a draw at a very tasty price compared to what it will be when the coin goes up on Thursday.

What a steal that price was! 4/9 with most now!

[LAMPS]

Re: Cricket: England vs Sri Lanka Test Series really frustrating, this should be a certain DRAW if Sri Lanka didn't tank but they keep throwing away wickets and they will get skittled for 120 odd at this rate. Hopefully a combo of rain and a massive england innings kills the time off :hope

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: England vs Sri Lanka Test Series Until P Jayawardene got out that wasn't a bad session. Sri Lanka never looked like getting 170 really so that was a nice bonus. Even with SL's piss poor attack it's not set in stone that England make 400+ in the heavy conditions and by the time we do you'd think Sri Lanka would only need to see out 30-40 overs given the amount of time we're going to lose this weekend. Although no rain is forecast first thing tomorrow it's due to come in heavy again in the afternoon but the outfield is so wet from today's rain that I wouldn't put an awful lot of money on play starting at 11.00 tomorrow. Monday looks like more heavy rain so I'm really happy with the draw right now.

[Carlisle Blue]

Re: Cricket: England vs Sri Lanka Test Series I don't think the weather forecast looks too bad to be honest for today or tomorrow. With the overcast conditions still in the Hampshire area there is no reason why the Sri Lankan seamers won't be able to get some movement on this pitch, Welegedara was particularly good in the last test, Strauss and Pietersen's form is a bit :unsure. Considering this I am going to back Sri Lanka at 33/1 as I believe it could offer a trading opportunity further down the line.

[TheBigWheelerDealer]

Re: Cricket: England vs Sri Lanka Test Series This is turning out to be very scary for me as I have massive stakes on the draw. WillHill have the draw at 4/6. England to win are 11/10 and whilst I'm going to be sweating it out on the last day, England might have a sniff of victory if the rain stays away. So, if anyone's feeling brave, I'd suggest going for it. England lead by 81 runs, and even if Sri Lanka wipe away the deficit how long will they be able to last on a fifth-day pitch? They have 7 more wickets in hand and if England take a couple of quick wickets in the morning, Sri Lanka might be staring at the barrel.

[Berlington Bertie]

Re: Cricket: England vs Sri Lanka Test Series The pitch isn't a fifth day pitch it is intact a day three pitch with all the play lost to the weather.That said if the rain stays away England win, but lookin at the forecast a draw looks nailed on.

[TheBigWheelerDealer]

Re: Cricket: England vs Sri Lanka Test Series

The pitch isn't a fifth day pitch it is intact a day three pitch with all the play lost to the weather.That said if the rain stays away England win' date=' but lookin at the forecast a draw looks nailed on.[/quote'] For my sake, I certainly hope you are right, sir!

[TheBigWheelerDealer]

Re: Cricket: England vs Sri Lanka Test Series Draw available @ evens with WillHill at the time of posting. Looks like thre will be no rain. England @5/6. Take your pick!

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: England vs Sri Lanka Test Series Another session which could barely have gone better for us draw backers. To only lose the nightwatchman and for SL to build up a lead of 33 is perfect. With heavy rain due in sometime between now and tea as long as SL don't get completely wiped out by the new ball this one looks a certain draw.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: England vs Sri Lanka Test Series Hat trick for me for the final test. +18.17pts for that match. Annoying the rain came after Samaraweera went 6 ahead of Paranavitana so the only remaining outright returns came from a place with Bell. So -1.5 on the remaining outrights which means a final series total of -5.33pts which is a lot better than it looked going into the Rose Bowl and one which I'll take given the horrific luck I encountered in the first two tests.