3 best bets for England’s fifth ODI with Sri Lanka at Edgbaston
Published:Through four games of England’s ODI series with Sri Lanka, both teams have played enough dominant cricket to have already sealed the victory, only to follow those performances up with combustible showings immediately afterwards.
As such, the series rumbles on to Edgbaston level at two games apiece and with a victory tantalisingly close for whichever side can relocate their winning brand of cricket quicker.
In such a fluctuating series finding form to bet on can be tough, but we’ve taken a stab at finding the best three bets for the fifth ODI anyway:
Jayawardene’s ODI average in England (40.85) is his second highest in 50-over matches away to the other Test playing nations, yet he hasn’t replicated anywhere near that figure in the series so far.
The former skipper is averaging just 14 over the first four matches and has only passed 50 once in his last 18 ODI innings.
Conditions in Birmingham are expected to suit the seamers.
Chris Jordan and Harry Gurney are both flourishing and, backed up by James Anderson, it’s likely that they’ll remove one of Sri Lanka’s opening pair before they’ve outscored Ian Bell and Alastair Cook, both of whom are better equipped to handle Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekara.
With the aforementioned seaming conditions a feather in England’s cap it’s the hosts that should be backed to prevail, especially as Sri Lanka’s most potent weapon has quite a cloud hanging over him
Sachithra Senanayake has spun his way to eight wickets at 12.5 runs apiece but has had his action reported to the ICC.
It could be that Sri Lanka rest him to spare him any extra scrutiny, or he could crumble under it should they put him in the spotlight anyway.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
Fancy a flutter? Sign up today to claim up to £50 in free bets.
