MoneyBall9 Fantasy guide: England v Sri Lanka 4th ODI

The MoneyBall9 Fantasy guide of the day is for the England v Sri Lanka 4th ODI at The Oval, London.

When you think about cricket in England, you instantly think about rain interfering with game time and ultimately having a huge say in the result of the match. And that is exactly what happened in the 3rd ODI at Bristol. Sri Lanka put up a decent enough total on board, despite losing wickets up front and scoring at a snail’s pace. Dinesh Chandimal and Angelo Mathews once again saved the day by stringing together a meaningful partnership and giving their bowlers something substantial to bowl at.

England’s reply started in the worst possible way, with Alex Hales returning to the dressing room without troubling the scorers. But then rain made its traditional appearance ending any chances of getting even a curtailed game in place.

With England leading the series 1-0 and just two games left, the 4th ODI is going to be a very exciting one as England would be looking to wrap the series and Sri Lanka would be striving to keep it alive.

Also read – Eng v SL, 4th ODI Preview: Battered Lankans aiming for redemption

Liam Plunkett has been the player of the series for England picking up 7 wickets in 3 games and also earning them that crucial tie in the first ODI. For Sri Lanka, Mathews and Chandimal have been performing decently well with Seekkuge Prasanna backing them up with both bat and ball.

Let’s get to business now!

England vs Sri Lanka 4^thODI

Batsmen

Jason Roy and Joe Root will be my first picks for the MoneyBall9 Fantasy league for this game. Root is the most technically gifted English batsman and whatever be the conditions, you can always bank on him to get you at least 50 points.

Jason Roy has been impressive and along with Hales he has changed the way English openers approach the powerplay. In the 2nd ODI he completely took away the game from Sri Lanka by taking the attack to them rather than playing the waiting game. Get him in!

Kusal Perera will be my last batsman for this game. He has been constantly doing well and has gotten off to starts in the first two games. Now, you could also opt for KusalMendis as it is anyone’s call as to which one of these two will perform better. But do take one of these two batsmen as on a flat Oval track, Sri Lanka could score big and these two will have a major say in that.

Wicketkeeper

Between Chandimal and Jos Buttler, I will go with Chandimal every day of the week as he comes in to bat at 4 and thus gets to face a lot of balls in order to make a significant impact.

Buttler bats at 6 and needs a top order collapse to have a big say in the game, something which I am not too excited about.

All Rounder

Seekkuge Prasanna has been great with the bat and ball for this entire series and his pinch hitting and late order cameos have helped Sri Lanka post huge scores on the board. Also, his wily leg spinners have bamboozled English batsmen, who traditionally don’t fancy leg spin too much.

Bowlers

Plunkett is an obvious choice as he has been the most successful English bowler in this series picking up 7 wickets in 3 games. The bounce that he extracts from the surface hurries the Sri Lankan batsmen, forcing them to err in their technique.

Nuwan Pradeep and Suraj Randiv are my other two bowlers. I get them in because of the value for money that they provide in the Moneyball9 Fantasy game. Both these bowlers can get around 5 wickets between themselves and when both of them come at a cost of just Rs5000, you get them in without thinking too much about it.

Flexible Player

Angelo Mathews is my flexible player for this game. He has been lifting Sri Lanka out of a pit every time the top order fails. Also, the fact that he has been taking more responsibility by promoting himself up the order and bowling 7-8 overs in each game gives him more opportunity to provide Fantasy managers with bucketloads of points.

Happy team picking!

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