England
Sri Lanka
In the 26th fixture of the World Cup, England and Sri Lanka will come face to face at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore. Both teams are very close in the point table and both will be eying a win in the tournament.
England has been in disappointing form in the tournament and they are currently at the 9th spot in the point table with a net run rate of -1.248 and only one win. They were outclassed by South Africa in their last match.
Sri Lanka is also struggling in the tournament as they have just won a single fixture and with a net run rate of -1.048 they are currently at the 8th spot in the point table. The top bookmakers in India have amazing World Cup odds with them.
Mendis has performed exceptionally well in the tournament at an average of 54.5. In 2023, Mendis has scored 817 runs in 26 ODIs at an average of 37.13.
The betting tip is...
Kusal Mendis to be Sri Lanka's top run-scorer
66 %
34 %
EnglandSri LankaSurprisingly, the T20 World Champions, are displaying a complete opposite performance in the 50-over format. With a single win in the tournament, England is struggling to make it to the higher ranks. In their previous fixture, England witnessed a loss against South Africa.
The decision to bowl first turned out to be the biggest blunder. At first, the bowlers failed to break the partnership of the Proteas batters and displayed a higher economy. Reece Topley picked up 3 wickets at an economy of 9.96. Gus Atkinson and Adil Rashid also contributed with 2 wickets each.
England is known for its batting depth but in front of the South African pace attack, the depth was completely invisible. Jonny Bairstow (10 off 12), Dawid Malan (6 off 11), Joe Root (2 off 6), and Ben Stokes (5 off 18) completely failed to impress.
Expectations were high from Harry Brook (17 off 25) and Jos Buttler (15 off 7) but both exceptionally talented batters also failed to build solid partnerships to control the game.
David Malan, Joe Root, and Adil Rashid will be the key players for England against Sri Lanka.
Predicted Lineup: Harry Brook, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow, David Willey, Gus Atkinson, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley, Mark Wood
A win in the previous game against the Netherlands will play an important for Sri Lanka’s confidence for the rest of the tournament. Bowling first, Dilshan Madushanka and Kasun Rajitha picked up 4 wickets each at an economy of 5.07 and 5.56 respectively. Maheesh Theekshana also contributed by scalping one wicket in the match.
On the batting front, Pathum Nissanka gave a good start to the team by scoring 54 off 52 at a strike rate of 103.85. However, it was a partnership between Sadeera Samarawickrama (91 off 107) and Charith Asalanka (44 off 66) that took the team closer to the chase.
Kusal Mendis will be the key player for the team as he has scored 218 runs in the last 4 ODIs at an average of 54.5.
Skipper Kusal Mendis won’t be making any changes to the winning combination.
Predicted Lineup: Maheesh Theekshana, Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis, Kusal Perera, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dushan Hemantha, Dilshan Madushanka, Kasun Rajitha, Chamika Karunaratne
Sri Lanka will be high on confidence with their previous win in the tournament. However, they are facing one of the best batting lineups in the world.
England has struggled in the tournament but considering the quality of players they have, the team can bounce back from any situation. We predict a win for England on Thursday.
