Sri Lanka v India - Second ODI

Well, we learnt plenty from our 'watching and learning' exercise in the first one-dayer between these two subcontinental outfits. Our initial fears about India were confirmed - this is a team that is struggling desperately and simply has no answers to the bamboozling spin of new sensation Ajantha Mendis.

You have to wonder how things have got so bad for India, not so long ago regarded as the best players of spin in the world. But Mendis and Muttiah Muralidaran have destroyed India in the Test series and also took six wickets between them in the first one-dayer to compound India's misery.

With only two days between games, it is hard to see India turning the tables here. Their batsmen are under enormous pressure and so are the selectors with renewed calls for Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid to come back from the one-day wilderness.
India is also without big guns Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag due to injury and looks hopelessly outclassed.

To make matters worse the venue for the second one-dayer is the same as the first so conditions will be similar and spin will undoubtedly play a huge role again.

Sri Lanka is set to retain its winning combination - and why wouldn't they with the five-pronged bowling attack posing an enormous threat.

India will have to tinker with its side - most probably switching MS Dhoni (and possibly also pinch hitter Irfan Pathan) up the order. But whatever they do it will be like trying to patch a gaping gunshot wound with a bandaid. They are outclassed, outskilled, outplayed and hopelessly down on confidence here and Sri Lanka will just be too good.

If Mendis doesn't get the Indians then Murali will. Both spinners - even if they do not strike mortal wicket-taking blows - are very accurate so will keep the Indian score very manageable.

Mr Cricket is a bit annoyed with himself that he didn't leap into the Sri Lankans in match one, where we thought they would win but we wanted to sit back and watch and learn a bit more. After their flogging of India in the first match, Sri Lanka are tighter odds here but that won't stop us from having a good go at them.

These two sides have been tangling in Test and now one-day cricket for the last month and Sri Lanka have had the upper hand in just about every session.
We see no reason that will change here and we want a two unit bet on Sri Lanka at $1.52 or better. ($1.57 Lasseters, Blue Square)

We are supremely confident of getting the chocolates here.

© 2008 Punting Ace.com

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