England to Produce Another Dominant Win?
We are now over halfway through the 2019 Cricket World Cup group stage. Things are beginning to take shape as teams battle for place in the top four and the knockout stages of the competition.
On Friday 21st June, England meet Sri Lanka at Headingley Stadium in Leeds. England know a win would be a huge step towards securing a top four place whereas Sri Lanka know time is running out. They need to win this game or face the prospect of being eliminated from the tournament.
The Favourites
England come into this match having defeated Afghanistan in their previous outing by 150 runs. It was a massive win in terms of the margin but a contest England were expected to win comfortably. They have won four of their five games in the tournament to date, defeating South Africa, Bangladesh, West Indies and Afghanistan.
The tournament hosts only negative came against Pakistan in a match they lost by 14 runs. England cannot afford another slip-up and they are the heavy favourites to win this match having beaten Sri Lanka six times in their last seven meetings.
England are available at just 1/9 with Coral to win the match.
The Outsiders
Sri Lanka have played five matches at the 2019 World Cup and despite sitting 6th in the table they have won just one of their games. The victory came against Afghanistan in a match which was interrupted by rain.
Sri Lanka have been unlucky with the weather and their two matches against Pakistan and Bangladesh were washed out. The other two games they have completed at the tournament ended in defeat to New Zealand and Australia. They lost by 10 wickets to New Zealand, which was their opening game of the competition and by 87 runs to Australia, which was their most recent outing.
Sri Lanka are the outsiders to win this match, priced at 8/1 with Ladbrokes.
Key Players
Other batsmen may have been getting the headlines for England but Joe Root has been the most consistent player. He has 367 runs in five games and is the second highest run scorer in the tournament at the time of writing. Root has hit two hundreds and two fifties to date and will be keen to add to his total.
Root is on offer at 9/2 with Betfair to be the top batsman in this game.
Sri Lanka will be looking toward Nuwan Pradeep and Lasith Malinga to take the crucial wickets for their team. The former took 4 wickets in the win against Afghanistan and will be more than happy to leave Leeds with the same result.
Pradeep is 9/2 with William Hill to be the top bowler for his team.