Sophia Gardens, Cardiff
New Zealand
Sri Lanka
New Zealand
Sri Lanka
?Since Jan 2000, head to head, out of 52 matches played between the two teams, Sri Lanka won 28 matches while Zealand got success in 24 games.
?In the World Cups in the 21st century, Sri Lanka has beaten New Zealand in 5 out of 6 encounters, but in the last 15 matches, New Zealand defeated Sri Lanka in 11 games, including the whitewash in the 3 match ODI series at New Zealand.
?Sri Lanka is going through a lean patch and many of the players are yet to establish themselves, on the other hand, New Zealand has quite a few key players to turn the match on their own.
CRICBETTINGBUZZ PREDICTION: New Zealand looks much stronger against Sri Lanka based on the outcomes of the recent matches and hence we predict New Zealand to win their opening match!
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The only victory Sri Lanka produced this year so far was against Scotland last month. Before that, they were besieged by New Zealand (0-3) and South Africa (0-5). They couldn't win either of the warm-up games against South Africa and Sri Lanka, but they must be satisfied as some of their batsmen - Lahiru Thirimanne, the skipper Dimuth Karunaratne and Angelo Mathews – scored half-centuries.
New Zealand, on the other hand, must be quite confident to play against Sri Lanka whom they sent back without conceding a single win early this year. Though Kiwis lost to West Indies in the last warm-up game after defeating India in the first one, they need to be a little more careful against Sri Lanka as the real show begins.
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New Zealand has begun the year 2019 with the bang, by sweeping the ODI series against Sri Lanka and winning the only T20 game of the tournament. However, they were challenged by India later and faced 1-4 series defeat. In February, they produced yet another clean sweep against the visitors, Bangladesh.
In their first warm-up game, New Zealand bowlers bundled out India for 179 runs under 40 overs, thanks to exceptional bowling from Trent Boult (4 wickets) and James Neesham (3 wickets). Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson then easily took New Zealand home, as both scored half-centuries. In the second warm-up match against West Indies, New Zealand bowlers failed miserably especially against Shai Hope and Andre Russell. Except for Boult, all their bowlers went for more than 7 runs per over, while Matt Henry conceded the most, 107 runs, in his 9 overs, allowing West Indies to cross 400 runs. Williamson (85 off 64) and Tom Blundell (106 off 89) batted courageously during run chase and Ish Sodhi’s 39 off 16 took them past 300, and eventually 91 runs defeat margin did not look too bad. New Zealand bowlers need to focus and learn not to repeat such dismal performances in main games.
Hashmatullah Shahidi, Hamid Hassan, Gulbadin Naib, Hazratullah Zazai, M Shahzad, N Zadran, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Rahmat Shah, Mohammad Nabi, Dawlat Zadran
KS Williamson (c), MJ Guptill, LRPL Taylor, HM Nicholls, TA Blundell (wk), TG Southee, TA Boult, C de Grandhomme, JDS Neesham, MJ Santner, IS Sodhi
Sri Lanka’s 35 runs victory (D/L method) over Scotland on May 21 was their first on foreign soil after defeating Bangladesh in January 2018. Before the win over Scotland, their last ODI wins outside the subcontinent was in July 2017 against Zimbabwe. Apparently, away from their home, they have been struggling to offer enough challenge to the test-playing teams. Sri Lanka right now has a new captain who led the side in the historic test series win (2-0) in South Africa - Dimuth Karunaratne.
Sri Lanka's weakness in the bowling unit was exploited by South African batsmen in the first warm-up game as they posted 338 runs. Four of Sri Lankan bowlers conceded 7 or more runs per over. Pradeep, Jeevan Mendis, and Vandersay conceded 152 runs in 17 overs among themselves. The skipper led from the front making 87 runs and Mathews supported him with his half-century, but the entire team was bowled out for 251 runs in 44 overs. Had they kept the wickets in hand and played full 50 overs, they might have crossed 300 at least and that would have boosted their confidence.
In the second warm-up match against mighty Australia, apart from Lahiru Thirimanne, no other batsmen crossed 50. They managed to post a modest total of 239 which was chased down by Australia in 44.5 overs with five wickets in hand. The warm-up matches have given them some very good lessons and addressing the shortcomings can enable them to play and progress well.
Aaron Finch, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Pat Cummins, Alex Carey, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Glenn Maxwell, Usman Khawaja, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa
Dimuth Karunaratne (c), Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Thisara Perera, Kusal Perera (wk), Dhananjaya de Silva, Isuru Udana, Milinda Siriwardana, Avishka Fernando, Lahiru Thirimanne, Jeffrey Vandersay
The venue of the match is Sophia Gardens, Cardiff. At this ground, the highest and lowest totals are 342 and 138 runs. The average first and second innings score on this surface are 227and 216. The highest total chased here is 304 while the lowest total defended is 169. The average score in last 10 matches batting first is 270. The pitch looks good for batting throughout the match.
The team winning toss would opt to field first, as out of 20 matches, 14 won by the team batting second.
Sri Lanka had become the World Champions when they defeated Australia in the final match in 1996. They were runners up in 2007 and 2011. But this Sri Lankan side doesn't seem to have the fervor and skills to confront a good opponent. On the other hand, New Zealand, the runners up of 2015 World Cup seem to have the required ingredient to take on any team in the tournament. Defeating Sri Lanka may not do be a difficult task for them, looking at the recent figures of both the sides and their players.
Thus, we predict that New Zealand would beat Sri Lanka in their opening match of the World Cup at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff on 1st of May 2019.
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