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Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from South Africa & Kenya

CAPE TOWN, Thursday , Following Sri Lanka's easy wins over Bangladesh and Canada, coach Dav Whatmore said that the team must now guard against complacency when they travel to Nairobi for their fourth Pool B match against Kenya.

The match is due to be played on the Nairobi Gymkhana Club grounds on Monday and it gives Sri Lanka a further chance to enhance their already impressive nett run rate before they take on the West Indies and South Africa in two crucial games.

With the weather suddenly affecting the results of some of the pool games, it is imperative that Sri Lanka or any other team for that matter, will try to get the maximum points off the non-Test playing nations, to be in contention for the Super Sixes.

Sri Lanka are riding high in Pool B with 12 points from three matches and a nett run rate of plus 3.17 which is so far the highest in the competition.

"The expectations are there to do well for sure. But without taking anything for granted Sri Lanka should come through in their match against Kenya. The real test will start on February 28 (v West Indies)," said Whatmore.

So far things have gone to plan for Sri Lanka and after their harrowing experiences in South Africa and Australia and with the issue of payments over World Cup advertising rights behind them, the team is jelling nicely under Sanath Jayasuriya.

The immensely talented left-hander has rediscovered his batting form after a few adjustments to his technique. His bat is now coming much straighter than before and although he still fancies playing his trade mark shots - the square cut and the square drive, he is very much relaxed than he was in Australia. With vice captain Marvan Atapattu providing the calming influence over the team with his classy batting, Sri Lanka are slowly but surely making their way towards qualifying for the next round of the competition without being so much in the limelight.

The plus point for Sri Lanka in the matches played so far have been the form showed by their bowlers, especially Chaminda Vaas. The experienced campaigner with 214 one-day caps and 264 wickets behind him has been the real inspiration for Jayasuriya.

Against Bangladesh and Canada, Vaas has bowled superbly wicket to wicket and has been duly rewarded with a total of nine wickets, after going wicketless in the opening fixture against New Zealand.

With Vaas firing so well, it has inspired young Prabath Nissanka also to follow in the footsteps of his illustrious new ball partner. Nissanka has the pace like Dilhara Fernando, but appeared to be wayward and kept on bowling no-balls and wides, much to the disappointment of Jayasuriya who seemed to have put a lot of faith in Nissanka, also a product from Matara.

But after much hardwork at the nets, Nissanka finally came right in the match against Canada where he returned career best figures of 4 for 12 off seven overs and went on to bag his first man-of-the-match award. As Jayasuriya said after the game, Nissanka would do well if he could continue in this vein and fill in the vacancy of Pulasthi Gunaratne who is recovering from a broken right index finger.

Although the team management has called for a replacement for Gunaratne, a final decision on whether he would remain with the squad or not will not be taken until closer to the West Indies game on February 28. Sri Lanka are keen to have Gunaratne fit and ready to bowl at the West Indians rather than expose a raw bowler like Nissanka.

Team physio Alex Kountouri is confident that Gunaratne may finally pull through and be available for selection. He said the only worry with Gunaratne is that he may not be able to grip the ball properly to bowl his slower ball. He said that Gunaratne could have his injured finger taped while fielding and that he could remove it when bowling.

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