England v Sri Lanka – ODI Series – An ideal opportunity for the visitors to take revenge
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013 and Sri Lanka will be up against each other in a five-match One Day International (ODI) series, which is going to start today at the Oval.
The home team easily won the Test series by a margin of 1-0, even though the visitors did give them a tough time on occasions in the three-match series. Sri Lanka bounced back in style and won the only T20 of the tour by a comprehensive margin of nine wickets.
Sri Lankan team has been historically more suited to the limited overs format of the game and same is the case at present. The Islanders ended up as the runner-ups of the last two ICC Cricket World Cups in 2007 and 2011. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 also played the final of
the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/ICC-World-Cup-2011-c100625 World T20 2009 at Lords. However, they lost all those encounters and off-late their record in the finals is extremely poor.
So, there is no doubt about the fact that Sri Lanka is a much better team in limited overs cricket as compared the longer version of the sport.
On the other side of the coin, England is considered as one of world’s best teams in Test match cricket but the same cannot be said about 50-overs format of the game. Their performances in the limited overs cricket in the tour of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 and the World
Cup were less than ordinary to say the least.
On top of that, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Alastair-Nathan-Cook-c42852 respectively.
England is in a rebuilding phase at the moment with a new captain and a completely new look to their ODI squad as well. It is not going to be easy for Cook to lead the England team, especially because there are a lot of question marks over his place in the
playing XI.
A successful captain is always the one, who leads his team from the front, and for someone, who has never been a permanent member of England’s limited overs team; it is going to be a huge challenge and test of character. Therefore, one can expect Cook to
take some time to settle down in this new role.
Sri Lanka on the other hand is bolstered by the return of their captain, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Tillakaratne-Mudiyanselage-Dilshan-c93947, who is fit once again after missing out on the last Test and the T20 fixture because of a hairline fracture on his thumb.
Their seasoned batsmen, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/KC-Sangakkara-c1779, look to be inn ominous form, which is a great sign for the visitors as both the former captains are match-winners and possess the ability to change the course of a game singlehandedly.
The return of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Separamadu-Lasith-Malinga-c89197 is also a huge plus for Sri Lanka because he is in the form of his life at the moment as he has done exceedingly well in this year’s World Cup and the Indian Premier League. Malinga has retired from Test cricket and now all his
focus is on the limited overs cricket.
All in all, Sri Lanka are the clear favourites for the ODI series as they look a http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Gordon-Muchall-c1499 more balanced and settled unit at the present moment of time. It is an ideal opportunity for Dilshan and company to take the revenge of Test series.
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