Sri Lanka Vs India – Second Test Preview

Colombo 20 - 25th August 2015

After a quite incredible Test in Galle, India's tour of Sri Lanka moves north to the P Sara Oval in Colombo. The first test consisted of India skittling the hosts for 183, having got them 60/5, and then putting on 375 in their first innings. This lead of almost 200 runs looked safe enough, and with Sri Lanka 5/3 in their second innings, an innings victory for the hosts looked likely, and the market priced them at sub-1.10. A counter-attacking 162* from Dinesh Chandimal with lower-order support from Thirimanne and Mubarak got SL to 367, a lead of 175 runs. Sri Lanka's spinners Herath and Kaushal them promptly cleaned up the Indian batting line up for 112, picking up 7-48 and 3-47 respectively.

This result clarified two things for me, firstly that this Sri Lankan side has plenty of guts, something that I had doubted in my preview of the first Test due to the lack of experience in the squad, and secondly that that 'Indian batsmen are good player of spin' cliche can finally be put to bed as a myth.

There has, however, been little talk of changes to be made by either camp, although Stuart Binny was flown in for the Indians between the Tests and opening bat Shikhar Dhawan has left the Indian touring party with a broken hand. This will be Kumar Sangakkara's final Test match, and backing him to be top Sri Lankan bat at 4s with Corals purely for sentimental reasons is something I'm looking at. Other standouts in this market look to be Chandimal at 8s and skipper Angelo Matthews at 6s.

In the match odds market, the hosts are currently 2.86/2.88, India 3.35/3.4 and the draw 2.80/2.82. As ever with Tests at the moment, opposing the draw looks an excellent play here, the batting of both sides has proved itself to be fragile, and both camps have been emphasising the fact that they'll be chasing the win.

Looking at previous Tests on this ground, the last draw here was in 2003, and this is the only one in the last 13 Tests here since September 1993, so history is on our side. There are some thunderstorms forecast, but this was the case for the last Test in Galle, and we didn't get any interruptions there, and these sides only need three days and one session to wrap up the four innings in that game.

I'm not convinced to back either of these sides here, Sri Lanka are still an inexperienced side, despite a strong performance last time out, and India are equally likely to come roaring back at their hosts as they are to collapse in a heap. The lay of the draw at 2.82, therefore, is the best play in my opinion.