A battered South Africa face a resurgent Sri Lanka
Author - Editor2
Sri Lanka and Lankans should embrace the Northern English weather for the next two weeks, as the Dimuth Karunaratne-led team will be in action against South Africa, the West Indies and India in hope of securing a place in the semifinals of the 2019 Cricket World Cup. Ranked ninth in the world Sri Lanka will take on fourth placed South Africa in a must-win World Cup encounter at the Chester-le-Street grounds in Durham today. The game is slated to get underway at 1500 Sri Lanka time.
Sri Lanka’s big win over hosts England in Headingley has renewed its chances of securing a semifinal berth in the 2019 Cricket World Cup. The scale of the victory in the last match has bolstered the confidence of the 1996 champions as three wins in three, could yield an unexpectedly successful campaign.
KusalJanith Perera has been the best batsman for the Lankans while veteran LasithMalinga has been the mainstay in the bowling department. Skipper Karunaratne has scored 160, the most by a Sri Lankan in this year’s event while former captain Angelo Mathews returned to form in style scoring an unbeaten 85 against the English in the last game.
Youngster Avishka Fernando proved his worth scoring a better than a run a ball 49 in a winning cause against the Jofra Archer-led attack. KusalMendis, Dhananjaya De Silva and the rest of the all-rounders though are yet to turn up to the party and if Sri Lanka was to progress, the middle and lower order are expected play decisive roles.
LasithMalinga has eight wickets including 4 for 43 and delivered several toe crushing yorkers in the match against England, giving the Lankan attack the much needed X-factor. Nuwan Pradeep has also been impressive and along with Dhananjaya De Silva and IsuruIdana have picked up five wickets each.
Ground fielding and catching have been average and Coach Chandika Hathurusinghe will look to fine tune the squad ahead of the blockbuster encounters against the Proteas, the Windies and the Men in Blue. Lankan wins in the tournament so far were built on strong bowling performances and the Proteas will be mindful of the threat in Durham today.
Faf du Plessis’ men are out of the competition and will be playing only for pride. They have a dominant success rate against the Lankans in recent times but their 2019 World Cup form has left them second from bottom in the points table.
Their only win came against Afghanistan and with little expectations and no pressure the South Africans could unleash all their cards on Sri Lanka today. Skipper du Plessis and Rassie Van der Dussen have played their parts but in Quinton De Kock and Hashim Amla, they have two misfiring world class batters at the top.
The bowling department includes KagisoRabada, Lungi Ngidi, Chris Morris and flamboyant Imran Thahir. After Dale Steyn was ruled out of the World Cup the Proteas attack looked toothless. The opponents have had little trouble in overcoming the South Africans in the corresponding six encounters.
The first of the two games for Sri Lanka at Chester-le-Street could throw a surprise or two today. But traditionally winning the toss and electing to field is the way to go and with South Africa and against West Indies next, the Lankan’s must go with a two-man spin attack.
South Africa has a strong pace attack, a misfiring yet a world class top order batting and a superior head to head record and therefore Dimuth Karunaratne must have an executable plan to notch up the two available points. Sri Lanka has fond memories at the sunny Durham where under Angelo Mathews in 2014 they beat the hosts England by 157 runs.
Sri Lanka must be circumspect in the first power play and then can launch against the lackluster South Africans. The third win of the tournament will see Sri Lanka on par with England’s tally of eight points.
