Before the start of the World Cup, 2 teams from the subcontinent were termed hot favourites to lift the trophy - one was India, and the other Sri Lanka. Their opening games against Bangladesh and Canada respectively showed why. But a week later, rude wake up calls from England and Pakistan exposed weaknesses in their sides and proved that this is the most open World Cup played so far, with many teams having a chance to grab the coveted title. Both teams have a chance to get back on track as they take on relatively easier opponents in their next games. While India takes on Ireland later in the week, Sri Lanka plays Kenya in Colombo on March 1st.
Team news
Sri Lanka: The Lankans started their World Cup campaign in style by crushing Canada by a mammoth 210 runs in their opening game. The batting and bowling came together as they walloped the hapless minnows with an all round display. But their performance against an unpredictable Pakistani side would have brought them back to the ground. The bowling line up, without Lasith Malinga looked harmless on a flat batting pitch. The pacers lacked penetration and though the spinners - Muralitharan and Herath were economical - they were unable to pick up wickets in the middle overs. The Sri Lankan top order looks extremely strong, with Dilshan, Jayawardene and Sangakkara among the runs in the 2 games. But their long middle order will be a cause of concern. There was ample proof for this in the Pakistan game as the batsmen struggled to score runs once Jayawardene and Sangakkara departed. Arjuna Ranatunga wanted Sangakkara or Jayawardene to bat lower in the line up to strengthen their middle order. It would be interesting to see if the team management considers it. Kenya: It is a time when the minnows are doing their best to impress the ICC in the World Cups. Netherlands gave England a scare, and Ireland almost upset Bangladesh at home. But Kenya on the other hand are doing everything they can to justify the ICC's decision to restrict the number of teams in future World Cups. Nothing is going right for the African team. They started their campaign by getting whacked by the Kiwis in Chennai, losing the game in around 3 hours. They soon followed it up by another shoddy performance against Pakistan, and ended up losing the game by 205 runs. Their bowlers conceded 37 wides against Pakistan, while the batsmen have struggled to measure up to both pace and spin. To make things worse, there are off field controversies with differences between the coach and senior players. Kenya would be desperately hoping for a miracle to put up a decent performance against Sri Lanka at home.
Head to Head:
Not many in the Sri Lankan team would forget what happened in the 2003 World Cup game in Nairobi. Put in to bat, the Kenyans made a decent 210 and returned with the ball to dismiss Sri Lanka for 157, thus shocking the Lankans by 53 runs. Collins Obuya was the star for Kenya that day, picking up 5 wickets for just 24 runs in his 10 overs. Obuya is still there 8 years later, but a repeat of the 2003 game seems far from possible. Apart from this encounter, the 2 teams have met 4 other times, with the Lankans winning all of them.
Quotes:
"I don't mind losing to teams like New Zealand and Pakistan because they are obviously better than us but we should be competitive. We need to be seen to be fighting and scoring runs" - Cricket Kenya chief Samir Inamdar.
"We know all about the embarrassment of losing to Kenya after that debacle in Nairobi back in 2003 and they have some useful players in their ranks" Sri Lankan batsman Mahela Jayawardena.
No comments:
Post a Comment