Will weather gods help cricket today?

Sanath ready for repeat performance:

Ranjan ANANDAAPPA in Australia

The weather gods will once again hold the key when Sri Lanka confront the tournament favourites, the powerful and confident Australia in their second match in the Commonwealth Bank Series in the Sydney Cricket Ground determined to overhaul Australia which will give a tremendous boost to their chances in qualifying for the finals in the tournament.

After the World Cup Final in March 2007, a match Australia won comprehensively under farcical and rather comic circumstances Sri Lanka get their chance again to have a crack at the mighty Aussies (Rated No. 1 with 130 points).

Mahela’s team would be itching to amend things this time and prove a point or two. Although the tournament is still at a very early stage, drawing the first blood against Australia will have a telling effect.

When departing from the island Mahela Jayawardena had emphasized that the team’s goal is to win the tournament. A good performance against Aussies is essential if this goal is to be achieved.

Australia’s overall performance against Sri Lanka in all one day matches is impressive with 43 wins as against Sri Lanka ‘s 19. Their record against Sri Lanka in the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is even more impressive with a 7-2 split.

The two teams met last in the SCG on 12 Feb 2006 in the second final of the Commonwealth Bank tournament, Australia having lost the first final at Adelaide.

This match should be remembered as Andrew Symonds’ match. The power house from Brisbane almost single-handedly annihilated Muralitharan with the off-spinner, usually a model of accuracy conceding 99 runs in his 10 overs.

Batting first Australia slumped to 3-10 losing Gilchrist (second ball), Katich and Martyn. With Ponting (124), Symonds added a record partnership of 237 runs for the fourth wicket and Australia ended up piling 368 runs with Symonds smashing 151 (28 fours and 6 sixes).

Sri Lanka crashed to 201 runs conceding a heavy defeat. Australia won the third final at Brisbane convincingly winning the triangular tournament to stamp their supremacy. Murali who was below par at SCG, no doubt must be smarting from the mauling, will try to make amends this time.

On the positive side, Sydney Cricket Ground is a happy hunting ground for the master blaster Sanath Jayasuriya who has an impressive record here. In 7 matches at SCG, Sanath aggregates an impressive 461 runs at an average of 65.85 with a strike rate of 107.

This includes six matches against Australia with an aggregate of 355 (with two centuries) for an average of 59.16 and a strike rate of 110.

In all Sanath had scored three centuries at Sydney including consecutive centuries against Australia and England in 2003/04. On all three occasions that Sanath blazed his way for centuries Sri Lanka had won easily. His three centuries in SCG surely has to be a record for an overseas player in this ground.

His spectacular century against Australia in 2006 in particular was memorable and something that the Sri Lankan community in Sydney still speaks very highly and with affection.

Having been written off and dropped from the original squad Jayasuriya had just arrived in Australia the day before when he walked in to the centre without match practice for months.

Sri Lanka had been thrashed by Australia in Melbourne in the previous match at Telstra Dome and the media had started to write off Sri Lanka as a competitive force in the triangular tournament.

Jayasuriya ably supported by Sangakkara (who scored 90 runs), blasted a quick century which laid the platform for an impressive win. This century, not only answered his critics and silenced the doubting Thomas’s, but also changed the course of the tournament. Sri Lanka eliminated South Africa and qualified for the best of three finals eventually. Such is the influence of the presence of Sanath in the team.

With the ball usually coming nicely to the bat and if the SCG deck is conducive for stroke play as it usually does, Sanath must be relishing the opportunity for yet another demolition act which has made him so famous.

The Sri Lankans were once again confined to the Indoor nets of the Sydney cricket grounds with heavy rain depriving them from an outdoor work out prior to their match.

Sri Lanka will most probably stick to their eleven which played India last Friday. Skipper Mahela Jayawardena was hopeful that the weather pattern could change and have a full days play. Australia : 1 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 2 Matthew Hayden, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Clarke, 5 Andrew Symonds, 6 Michael Hussey, 7 James Hopes, 8 Brad Hogg, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Mitchell Johnson, 11 Nathan Bracken.

Sri Lanka: 1 Upul Tharanga, 2 Sanath Jayasuriya, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 4 Mahela Jayawardene (capt), 5 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 6 Chamara Silva, 7 Chamara Kapugedera, 8 Chaminda Vaas, 9 Lasith Malinga, 10 Ishara Amerasinghe, 11 Muttiah Muralitharan.