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Sri Lanka hoping to maintain winning streak

CRICKET: Sri Lanka will be hoping to maintain their winning momentum when they take on India in the third one day international at the Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Fatorda, Margao here on Wednesday.

With the World Cup squad finalised the Lankans are planning to give all their players the opportunity of making an impact during this game as well as in the fourth and final one dayer scheduled for Saturday in Vishakapatnam.

Skipper Mahela Jayawardena stressed the importance of having all fifteen players of the squad in good form rather than going in with eleven top players. "We need to have a squad of players who could play at the highest level and we need to give them the opportunity as well.

"We should not put a lot of emphasis on Muralitharan and Vaas. We never know when they will be injured. We do not want to take eleven best players but we need to have fifteen strong players especially going into an important tournament such as the World Cup".

The Sri Lankan captain expressed his fullest satisfaction with the manner the team had performed during the current Indian tour. Even then he was expecting an improved performance from the team going into the third one day international especially from the top order batsmen.

"There are several other areas where we need to catch up and improve during the next couple of games. This tour will certainly make sure that we take care of those finer things in the whole team and ensure that they are one hundred percent fit for the World Cup".

Skipper also said that the team is now performing much better in overseas and have won 21 of their 41 one dayers and six of their eleven test matches with a majority of them away from home. "In India actually we started our revival. When we lost those six matches badly we had a chat and asked ourselves where we wanted to be in one years time".

"Today we are in a different situation performing consistently. We have grown up as a team and we have got lot of results together" added the Lankan captain. Sri Lanka have been drawn with India, Bangladesh and debutants Bermuda in group 'B' of the ICC World Cup preliminary round where the top two teams will advance into the second round.

Sri Lanka will certainly have a psychological advantage going into the third one dayer having defeated the Indians twice earlier at this same venue which is located in the holiday hotspot of Goa, a former Portuguese colony. In fact India have made only three appearances on the ground and have won just a solitary game against England in 2005.

Sri Lanka first bundled out the Indians for 136 runs in 40.3 overs in 1990 which is still the second lowest team total at this venue. In 1991 the Lankans then successfully chased India's total of 225 for 6 to win by five wickets with two overs to spare.

The first ever one day international in Margao was also played between Sri Lanka and Australia during a MRF World Series tournament fixture in 1989 where the Aussies triumphed by 28 runs.

The last one day international was played here in 2005 between India and England.

The teams:

Sri Lanka (from): DPMD Jayawardene (captain), KC Sangakkara (vice-captain), UDU Chandana, RP Arnold, MS Atapattu, CM Bandara, TM Dilshan, CRD Fernando, ST Jayasuriya, KMDN Kulasekara, MF Maharoof, SL Malinga, LPC Silva, WU Tharanga, DNT Zoysa.

India (from): R. Dravid (captain), AB Agarkar, MS Dhoni, SC Ganguly, Harbhajan Singh, KD Karthik, Z Khan, A. Kumble, M. Patel, V. Sehwag, S. Sreesanth, S. Tendulkar, M. Tiwary, A. Uthappa, Yuvaraj Singh. (Margoa, Tuesday).

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