Sri Lanka hoping to maintain winning streak
Chris Dhambarage in Goa
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). |