Friday, June 3rd – England v Sri Lanka 2nd Test Cricket betting have England firmly in the ascendancy following a dramatic close to the first test. After England surprisingly sealed a win in the first of a three match Test series against Sri Lanka at the start of the week, they will look to move in for the kill at Lords on Friday. After toiling with their bowling the Sri Lankan second innings, the match looked set to play out to a draw until a remarkable batting collapse ensued after tea, giving England an innings and 14 run victory. Sri Lanka totally collapsed after tea, finishing up on 82 all out in just under 25 overs to give England an unlikely win. The collapse shocked everybody, especially England captain Andrew Strauss, as pace bowler Chris Tremlett got the vital wickets of the two Sri Lanka openers, which caused the house of cards to fall. This sets up an interesting second test match in which England can wrap up the series somewhat unexpectedly. The first test looked like a draw all the way until that remarkable two hour session after tea. England now, who were expected to win the series anyway, should be able to wrap it up. They only need to avoid defeat now in their next two games, but of course, will want to go for the jugular. While the Sri Lanka side is not the strongest force to be reckoned with at the moment, England really need to build momentum and confidence, which will only come from winning. That is because the number one test nation in the world visits in the summer, when India land for their series.
England have now made the call to Jade Dernbach to join the squad, as they look to throw a big bowling attack at the tourists. Dernbach has yet to make his international debut for his country, but the seam bowler could step into the fray after James Anderson picked up a side strain. Dernbach continued his good development as a future first teamer, when taking nine wickets against Sri Lanka for the Lions in a recent tour match. Dernbach will face competition for the bowling attack from Steve Finn, who would be playing on his home track. Finn does make the more likely candidate to start, and combined with Stuart Broad and Chris Tremlett, England will no doubt fire down a lot of rising balls to the Sri Lanka batsmen, who had great difficulty fending them off during the match. This is a big aspect of the game which should influence your England v Sri Lanka 2nd Test Cricket betting. Finn of course impressed a lot in Australia, when England were successfully contesting the Ashes, and he has great averages, taking a wicket every 18 runs for his county. Very efficient. Fortunately England are in a good position to fill the seam bowling holes in their attack, and the selectors are hopeful of getting Anderson back for the third test. Other than the enforced change to the squad caused by Anderson’s injury, England will unsurprisingly stick with continuity for the second test at Lords.
If it is Finn, then England have a mightily tall bowling attack to throw at Sri Lanka, who must still be scratching their heads and wondering what happened to them. Already weakened by the retirements of Muralitharan and Malinga, and others taking IPL places, Sri Lanka came as underdogs in England v Sri Lanka Cricket betting for the tour of England. However, they seemed to hold up England quite well without being too spectacular in their batting. But as suspected, it was a weaker bowling attack, without their two legendary names that caused them the most problems. England were still firing on 491-5 come the start of the fifth day, with the tourist bowlers unable to really penetrate the England attack, with Trott (second Test double hundred), Cook and Bell all weighing in heavily with big scores. Sri Lanka’s batting attack is their strength at the moment, as they are a side in transition, but England have a big chance to really destroy their confidence a bit further, if their giant bowling attack gets the kind of bounce they were producing on the final day. It was bounce found by Tremlett and Broad which the respective Sri Lankan bowlers could just not find.
So what can we expect for the England v Sri Lanka 2nd Test Cricket betting? Firstly the form of the England batsmen have to be taken into account. Jonathan Trott in particular is looking so relaxed and comfortable in his role that more runs from him are almost a given. He seems to be pairing up with well with Cook as well, and that means England have some heavy scorers in their line up, all the way down the innovate Eoin Morgan at six and Matt Prior at seven. There is a lot of strength in depth with the England batting at the moment. Well worth taking Trott as top scorer again, just simply because he is in the zone. Trott is 7/2 at BetFred to be Top England Batsman. Sri Lanka just don’t seem to have enough pace or variety to throw at England’s batsmen to disrupt them. With the collapse on the final day, England know how to get at Sri Lanka, and that is with pace and bounce. Broad, Tremlett and Finn can deliver this very well for the home side, and while Sri Lanka do have a splattering of class in their batting line up, you would fancy break throughs coming for England. While all three will take wickets, why not have a punt on Steve Finn as England’s top bowler, as he is efficient, stronger than he was in Australia and of course, on his home pitch. Finn is priced at 7/2 at Bet365 as England’s top bowler.
England squad: A Strauss (c), A Cook, J Trott, K Pietersen, I Bell, E Morgan, M Prior, S Broad, G Swann, C Tremlett, S Finn, J Dernbach.
England v Sri Lanka 2nd Test Cricket betting
England to win: 4/6 at BetFred
Draw: 2/1 at Bet365
Sri Lanka to win: 9/1 at SportingBet
England v Sri Lanka Correct Score Odds
England 2-0: 9/5 at Unibet
England 3-0: 7/4 at Blue Square
England 1-0: 8/1 at Bet365
Draw 1-1: 9/1 at Totesport
