When you look at the start of Sri Lanka’s tour of South Africa 2019, you will see a 2-0 whitewash of the Test series by the island nation. It was clearly a situation of not being able to adjust to the change of format, as Sri Lanka then went on to lose the ODI series, 0-5. They looked like a completely different side altogether.
Now, we have a 3-match T20 series and we’ll have to see whether this format brings another change of fortunes for Sri Lanka, or whether it’ll be another dominating performance by the Proteas. The 1st T20 will be played at Newlands on a slowish pitch, the same one where the 5th ODI was played. Keep reading for our complete fantasy preview of this game…
Match info
- Tournament: Sri Lanka tour of South Africa 2019
- Date: 19th March 2019, 9:30pm IST
- Venue: Newlands, Cape Town
- Capacity: 25,000+
- Series status: First game of the 3-match series.
Form (recent first)
- South Africa: L W W W W
- Sri Lanka: L L W L L
Stats
- Imran Tahir picked up 9 wickets in 4 games in the ODI series.
- Imran Tahir is the leading wicket-taker here, with 12 wickets in 4 games.
- South Africa have won only 4 of their 10 T20s at this ground.
- The last time these two played a T20 here, Sri Lanka won by 5 wickets – Jan 2017.
- JP Duminy is the highest run-scorer here – 229 runs.
- 192/6 is the highest team total here – South Africa.
- Average 1st innings score here – 150.
South Africa
AB de Villiers picked his top 4 teams for the 2019 ICC World Cup and South Africa was not among them. They have 3 games to experiment before the tournament and they are likely to play the same eleven they played in the 5th ODI. However, we’re expecting Dale Steyn to come in for Lungi Ngidi, who is nursing an injury.
Three must-picks in your fantasy team for the 1st T20 are Aiden Markram, because of his fantastic recent domestic form; Imran Tahir, because of the beautiful stats mentioned above; and JP Duminy, because he, along with Tahir, will be wanting to sign off from their home ground in style. One last time, as they are both retiring after the World Cup. Lets not forget that Duminy is also the highest scorer here. I would be tempted to make him my captain as well.
Sri Lanka
Sadeera Samarawickrama, Jeffrey Vandersay and seamer Asitha Fernando are the new faces we’re going to see in the T20 series, with Fernando seeming set to get a debut. Keep your all-rounder spot open for Dhananjaya de Silva, who had a decent ODI series, while Isuru Udana is another one you shouldn’t miss. While he is a bowler, I see him coming handy with the bat in this series too.
Lasith Malinga’s favourite format has always been T20s and while he had a very mediocre, or even bad ODI series, this is his chance to redeem himself, and probably redeem his team’s pride as well. The same can be said for Thisara Perera, who loves the T20 format. Those who will miss out in this series are Upul Tharanga and Kusal Perera.
SA v SL Betting
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— Read Scoops (@ReadScoops) March 18, 2019
My fantasy eleven
For more updates on the ongoing Sri Lanka tour of South Africa 2019, keep reading ReadScoops.com.
