Pallekele International Cricket Stadium Pitch Report For SL vs WI 1st ODI Match

Pallekele International Stadium (Source:@RoshanCricket/X.com)Pallekele International Stadium (Source:@RoshanCricket/X.com)

Sri Lanka have played some brilliant cricket in recent past under the new head coach Sanath Jayasuriya and continued that in the T20I series against Windies, beating them by a 2-1 margin. The caravan now moves to Pallekele for the three-match ODI series and the first game is scheduled to be played on 20th of October.

Sri Lanka will be led by Charith Asalanka and and in the last ODI series, they whitewashed India. So they know how to deliver in their home conditions and would be high on confidence. West Indies, on the other hand, are trying to find their feet back in ODI cricket and Shai Hope would have to lead from the front if the Windies want to win this series. All the matches will be played at the Pallekele International Stadium and let's see how the pitch will behave in the first game.

Pallekele International Cricket Stadium Pitch Report

The pitch at the Pallekle International Stadium provides a good balance between bat and ball. The batters if they apply themselves can score big and Pathum Nissanka also has a double century to his name on this ground.

However, it is not a flat deck and both spinners and seamers will get help from the wicket. Seamers have taken 59 percent of wickets while spinners have taken rest of the 41 percent of wicket. The average first innings score is 249 which shows the even balance between bat and ball and the pitch for the first ODI is again expected to dish out a quality ODI wicket. The ball tends to seam around in Pallekele under lights, but overall the conditions will not change much so the team winning the toss would like to bowl first.

So, expect a competitive game with both sides exchanging blows in front of a packed crowd at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium.