ODI preview / Richard O’Hagan / 13 February 2012 /

Sri Lanka are yet to win a game in this tournament and this could be a good chance to do just that. They'll need a big knock from their skipper Mahela Jayawardene and they might just get that, says Richard O'Hagan.

Sri Lanka will be hoping that it is third time lucky as they take on India in Adelaide having narrowly lost their first two matches in the CB series. India, on the other hand, will be hoping to build upon Sunday's dramatic win over Australia at the same venue.

Team News

India rested Sachin Tendulkar from Sunday's game and if truth be told , they looked like a much more confident side, shorn of the additional stress that the Little Master's quest for his hundredth international hundred seems to bring. They announced in advance that they would rotate their trio of openers - Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir - throughout the tournament and it seems that Sehwag, who has been off form, is most likely to give way, especially after Gambhir made 92 against Australia and was wrongly given out when he looked likely to make a ton.

The Sri Lankans also ran the Australians close, coming up just short in an enthralling contest that was entirely turned on its head by the shrewd hitting of vice-captain Angelo Mathews. They may opt to bring in all-rounder Farveez Maharoof in place of the underperforming Lahiru Thirimane, whilst opener Upal Tharanga is due a big score after failing to reach double figures in both innings so far.

Venue and Conditions

Adelaide isn't a high scoring ground nowadays and Sunday's game, with both sides scoring at over five an over, is about as good as it gets at the old ground nowadays. Only two of the 14 wickets in that game fell to spinners, with the most successful being the canny, change-of-pace type of bowlers.

Match Odds

After India's fine win on Sunday, they are [1.65] to take this game, which is understandable. However, the Sri Lankans came close enough against the same opposition to make this a closer game than their odds of [2.48] would suggest.

Top Runscorer

Very few batsmen seem to flourish once the burden of captaincy is handed to them. Indian skipper MS Dhoni at times seems to be a case in point, becoming tentative where his old aggression would better fit the match circumstances. At times, though, the old Dhoni breaks through, as it did against Sri Lanka in the World Cup final and as it did against Australia on Sunday.

In this game he meets a man who has been there before in Mahela Jayawardene, Sri Lanka's captain for this series, and probably the rest of 2012. Jayawardene never seemed to be that affected by the pressure of being in charge during his previous stint at the helm but has made only 36 runs in two innings so far in this tournament. Despite this, his odds of [5.0] to be Sri Lanka's top run scorer look to be rather long for a man with over 10,000 ODI runs and 15 hundreds.

Batsman to score 50 runs

One of the problems that Sri Lanka have had since reaching the World Cup final last year is that, hitherto, they have been heavily reliant upon their openers to score heavily and quickly at the beginning of their innings.

It is a policy which goes back to the 1996 World Cup - which saw the arrival of the near-legendary Sanath Jayasuriya - and has served them very well over the years. The problem during the past twelve months has been caused by Tillakaratne Dilshan's loss of form upon being appointed captain, coupled with Tharanga's ban for failing a drugs test. Dilshan has shown signs of being back to his old self during the past two games, but Tharanga still has to find his feet. This means that he is on offer at a lengthy [2.5] to score a fifty during this game and it may be worth taking the chance that Tharanga makes a decent score.

Best Bet

Mahela Jayawardene to be Sri Lanka's top scorer at odds of [5.0]

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