ODI preview 
/ Richard O’Hagan / 20 February 2012 / Leave a Comment 
Lahiru Thirimanne may get a chance to impress up the order
"Sri Lanka are the form team of the tournament. They have the most dependable top four batsmen and seem to have finally found an attack capable of bowling sides out on Australian pitches."
Sri Lanka are the form side at the moment in this drawn-out competition and the absence of the suspended captain MS Dhoni won't help India's cause one little bit, says Richard O'Hagan.
The past week has seen the fortunes of both sides reverse completely. Sri Lanka followed last Tuesday's dramatic tie against India with a comprehensive victory over Australia, whilst India went the opposite way. Not only were they thoroughly beaten by the hosts, captain MS Dhoni picked up his second one game suspension of the year in the process.
Team News
How India deal with the loss of Dhoni will be vital. Partiv Patel will replace him behind the stumps, but is nowhere near the same batsman, especially as Dhoni has been India's form player of this series.
Virender Sehwag will take over the captaincy again, but he has been having a poor series and with Sachin Tendulkar equally out of form, it is likely that Gautam Gambhir - the one Indian other than Dhoni to have made runs in this tournament - will open with him.
Dhoni's recent pronouncement that having all three senior batsmen in the side will cost the team twenty runs may be the only thing that keeps Ravinder Jadeja in the side; the IPL's most expensive player has been very disappointing in this series and has even fallen behind Suresh Raina as the spinner of choice, it seems.
Sri Lanka may well stick to the same batting line-up as against Australia. Captain Mahela Jayawardene clearly relished the chance to open the batting and with Dinesh Chandimal in fine form as well, it seems unlikely that they will alter their XI. They played four quick bowlers in that game and are likely to stick with that, although Angelo Mathews may still be having nightmares about bowling the 49th over which allowed India to sneak back into the sides' last meeting.
Venue and Conditions
The Brisbane pitch on Sunday was a curious one, appearing to become faster and bouncier as the game went on. Couple that with the two spinners used in that game bowling all of their overs for no reward at all and you can expect to see plenty of work for the fast men, with the slow bowlers being used in a containing role - and, of course, to avoid those slow over rate fines!
Sri Lanka are the form team of the tournament. They have the most dependable top four batsmen and seem to have finally found an attack capable of bowling sides out on Australian pitches. India, on the other hand, seem to be tiring after their long tour and have also had the wearying experience of several close games in this competition. Despite this, Sri Lanka remain outsiders for this match and therefore represent a good bet at [2.06]
The loss of Dhoni makes the Indian batting too volatile to consider at the moment. Sri Lanka, though, have four prime contenders in Jayawardene, Tillekaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara and Chandimal. A good bet outside of this group might be Lahiru Thirimanne. He hasn't scored many runs in his three appearances (although he wasn't required to bat against Australia), but as an opening batsman in Test matches, he may well find this quicker pitch to his liking and may even be promoted to open instead of Jayawardene, if the conditions are right. He is available at odds of [7.0].
This is not the sort of market we would normally single out for a game, but in their four CB Series matches Sri Lanka have effected a remarkable eight run outs and been involved in another five when batting. That is an average of 3.25 per match, which makes the price of [1.7] on there being more than 1.5 in this game look rather attractive.
Best Bet
Lahiru Thirimanne to be Sri Lanka's top scorer at odds of [7.0]
The tourists are getting their act together while Australia are deteriorating fast and Andrew Hughes can see only one outcome in Brisbane
After their tie against India, it's crunch time for the Sri Lankans, but Andrew Hughes believes they can get the better of the hosts on Friday
Sri Lanka are yet to win a game in this tournament and this could be a good chance to do just that. They'll need a big knock from their skipper Mahela Jayawardene and they might just get that, says Richard...
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