Sri Lanka vs South Africa 2018, Only T20I: 3 reasons why South Africa will win the match

The IPL factor- South African player’s exposure in the IPL will help them tremendously

It is a known fact that every country is facing a problem of overload, people management amidst the extremely tight schedules. So in these times, T20 internationals are few and far in between.

There are full-fledged ODI and Test series planned with a one off or maximum two match T20I series which is played in the intention of bringing in more crowds to the stadium to cash in the popularity factor of T20s.

So it becomes important to play competitive, world class T20 cricket when T20 internationals aren’t on the itinerary. South African players have been rather south after in cash rich T20 leagues across the globe such as the Indian Premier League( IPL), Big Bash League( BBL) and Caribbean Premier League( CPL).

The exposure of the likes of Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, David Miller, Junior Dala, JP Duminy and Faf Du Plessis get by playing in such leagues will hold them in good stead when they play T20s for South Africa. As they are used to playing T20s in similar conditions as what they will face in Sri Lanka.

That’s another aspect where Sri Lanka’s catastrophic run in the ODIs and T20s recently has adversely impacted their players. Barring the likes of Angelo Mathews, Thissara Perera and Akila Dananjaya no one else found buyers in the biggest T20 league- IPL.

The Lankan players are missing out on global exposure, missing out on a chance to learn and play with the best players from across the globe and most importantly are underprepared to play T20s.

But T20Is can change due to the brilliance of one player. Sri Lanka would hope that they can end their tour against South Africa as they started it- on a winning note.