Twenty20 / Andrew Hughes / 06 May 2010 /

Neither of these teams were all that convincing but they made it out of their groups and both know that defeat in this game will make it extremely tough to reach the semis. Andrew Hughes previews Friday's second Group F game.

Venue and Conditions

Australia and South Africa were only able to score 140 or so on this surface against two of the poorer bowling attacks in the tournament, so we shouldn't expect a high scoring game. The weather forecast is for scattered showers, so batting second could prove an advantage under the Duckworth Lewis rules.

Team News

West Indies experimented with Andre Fletcher as wicket keeper last time and are likely to continue with that option. If Jerome Taylor is fit, he will relish bowling on this pitch and one of the spinners will make way, presumably Nikita Miller.

Sri Lanka may go for an extra seam bowler, probably Nuwan Kulasekara, with spinner Suraj Randiv likely to miss out. Everyone is waiting for Sanath Jayasuriya to move up the order, but Sri Lanka appear content to use him as a spinner who bats.

Match Odds

In a group that also features India and Australia, both of these teams know that victory here is vital to their chances of progressing. Sri Lanka are the better team on paper but have a number of problems. Most of their batsmen are out of form, they have a shaky middle-order, they've lost the experience of Muttiah Muralitheran and they are not at their best on fast, bouncy pitches. The West Indies may not be the strongest side in the tournament but appear to have more confidence and discipline under new coach Ottis Gibson and should be backed at [2.14]

Top Batsman

Chris Gayle will be all the rage in this market but I prefer Shivnarine Chanderpaul. One of the few West Indian batsmen capable of batting right through the innings, he looked in good form against England. He can be backed at [4.5]

For Sri Lanka, you could make a small case for the promising youngster Dinesh Chandimal, but really, there is only one batsman in any sort of touch and that is Mahela Jayawardene, who is available at [3.5] but frankly would be value at much shorter odds.

Featured Market

With Tillakaratne Dilshan unable to get the ball off the square at the moment, it makes sense to side with West Indies in the 'Top Opening Partnership' market at [1.9]

Trivia

Kensington Oval was once the fortress of West Indian cricket, indeed, they didn't lose a Test there from 1935 to 1994.

Andrew Hughes says back West Indies to win at [2.14]

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