Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka, 2nd T20I – Match Predictions

It’s been quite a successful Bangladesh tour for Sri Lanka as they won the ODI tri-series as well as the Test series and now they are on the verge of finishing the tour with another glory by securing the T20I series as well. The visitors have an unassailable 1-0 advantage going into the second and last T20I game which will take place at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium tomorrow.

Bangladesh, on the contrary, will want to level the series as it has not been a great last few months for them in international cricket and they are in desperate need of some kind of a high. After the demolition on the South African tour, the fans had expected them to make a comeback in home conditions, but it hasn’t proven to be the case. They will have to pull their socks up and bring out their A game to draw levels tomorrow.

Probable nature of the pitch

The pitch at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium should be slightly on the slower side, but will still be fairly good for batting. The new ball against the quick bowlers will come onto the bat nicely. The spinners might get a little bit of grip and turn which will increase a tad more as the game progresses, however, the captain winning the toss will still like to field first considering bowling is the weaker link of both the sides and chasing the score later will be more beneficial.

Playing Combination

Bangladesh

Bangladesh don’t have some of their big guns available for this series. They had as many as four players making their debut in the last game and it should be the same inexperienced XI taking the field for them again.

While their batting clicked the other evening with the senior statesmen Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah coming to the party, it’s the bowling where the lack of experience was evident as 5 out of the 6 bowlers went at a rate of more than 10 runs per over.

Bangladesh would like Mustafizur Rahman and Rubel Hossain to lead the way with the ball as they have been in and around the international circuit for a fair bit of time. Probably the captain Mahmudullah will want to use Rubel with the new ball, something which he didn’t do in Dhaka.

Probable XI: Zakir Hasan, Soumya Sarkar, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Mahmudullah (C), Sabbir Rahman, Afif Hossain, Ariful Haque, Mohammad Saifuddin, Nazmul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Rubel Hossain

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka are much stronger on paper than Bangladesh as they have got their full strength squad barring Angelo Mathews. While they were also disappointing with the ball in the last game, it’s the presence of the power hitters in the middle order which made the difference for them as Dasun Shanaka and Thisara Perera caught the game by the scruff of the neck and carted the hosts to all corners of the park.

Sri Lanka should also be going with an unchanged XI, but they will want their bowlers to be far tighter with their line and length in comparison to Thursday when they were all over the place.

The trump card will be Akila Dhananjaya who has come into his own as a spinner on this tour with some wonderful performances with the white as well as red ball. Sri Lanka will back him to deliver a match winning spell tomorrow. Jeevan Mendis with his handy little leg-spin will be the man to watch out for as well.

Probable XI: Dinesh Chandimal (C), Upul Tharanga, Danushka Gunathilaka, Kusal Mendis, Thisara Perera, Niroshan Dickwella (wk), Jeevan Mendis, Dasun Shanaka, Shehan Madushanka, Akila Dananjaya, Isuru Udana

Here is what we at CricTracker predict for the match:

Head to Head

Played – 8 Bangladesh – 2 Sri Lanka – 6

Probable Top Performers

Soumya Sarkar (Bangladesh)| Akila Dhananjaya (Sri Lanka)

Timings of the match: 4.30 PM IST

Broadcast Details:

TV: Star Sports Select 2

Live streaming: Hotstar

The prediction is for Sri Lanka to beat Bangladesh in this match and win the series 2-0.